


Seer

by Velarie



Series: Ria Yamamoto [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Action & Romance, Anime, Complete, F/M, Mystery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2018-10-27 21:25:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 144,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10817058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velarie/pseuds/Velarie
Summary: Ria Yamamoto is the 3rd seat in Squad 10. Blessed with a unique zanpakuto, Ria struggles to grow as a Soul Reaper while dealing with the confusing predictions that her zanpakuto likes to give her every day. Unfortunately, her daily predictions aren't always understood until its too late...





	1. She Who Wants More

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler Alert: This story is based 20 years after the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc. If you haven't read the manga, a lot of the details in this story may be spoilers. A lot of it, however, is me filling in the blanks in time. If you want to know what is real about the actual story and what isn't, check out the Bleach Wikia or read up on the rest of the story.  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of the ideas present inside the manga or Anime. The use of any materials that were not my own were intended for the purpose of entertainment and nothing more.

I stared down at my zanpakuto where it lay across the table. Over the bowl of rice I was eating, the bared blade looked like any other zanpakuto except for hand guard. Crafted like a piece of artwork, the hand guard wove intricately like delicate vines, leaving a few strands of metal to loop over the hilt and attach at the end. She really was a beautiful sword, but she was such a stubborn little… ugh.

It had been almost five years since I first started talking to my zanpakuto and ten years since I had been able to see her manifestation. Five whole years and my stubborn little zanpakuto hadn't ever told me her name. Every morning I would ask her what her name was. It used to be that she would just look at me in silence, but lately I was getting just the strangest answers.  _ She Who Waits _ ;  _ She Who Listens _ ;  _ She Who Wanders _  and more. It was really frustrating. The first time she had given me that answer, I had thought it really was her name. I had been so excited and had bounced around all day until the next morning when I asked again and her response was  _ She Who Assumes _ .

I hadn't asked my zanpakuto what her name was today. It was still morning, I had time before I was due in the West Rukon district for the day's duties. I still had a lot to do though before I went through the city. Perhaps calling out to her would be better done now rather than later… I let out a sigh.

"Zanpakuto, what is your name?"

Like she had been standing there the whole time, my zanpakuto's manifestation was just there, blocking out the light from the open doorway. Today, her kimono was lacking its usual decor. No beads, no golden charms in her hair, and a distinct lack of refinement loomed around her. Normally, she was elegant, like a princess of the noble houses. The mask that she always wore covered her entire face. Today, it was grey with blackened edges, plain and solid without any way to see through. Sometimes, I could see my zanpakuto's teal eyes, but on days like today, there was nothing to see but mask.

" _ She Who Wants More _ ." The voice that emanated from my zanpakuto was slow and ominous. I always compared it to the way I imagined a siren would talk to sailors in the Greek legends—deep, alluring, and perfectly pronounced.

"When am I going to get your real name?"

She tilted her head to the side. I could just imagine the chiding smile under her mask. "She who wants so much more."

I wanted to bash my head against something hard.

A short while later, I had cleaned up my breakfast and exited the barracks building. Normally, I would have just flash stepped to where I was going, but I had left early this morning. My zanpakuto's words were almost always aggravating. Walking through the mostly empty corridors gave me a chance to vent my frustrations, of which there were plenty lately thanks to her stupid names. Sometimes, I was so busy worrying about her names that it made doing my work a chore.

Normally, I was assigned to the repair and maintenance of the Seireitei, but when nothing needed to be fixed, I was assigned to scouting the Rukon districts for individuals gifted with academy-worthy spiritual pressure or sent to the Human World to perform Konso. I had a peaceful life for a soul reaper, not something that most people outside of Squad 4 could boast. I wasn't a combat oriented soul reaper, but someone who sat behind the scenes. This suited me just fine though. I'd much rather sit and do my Lieutenant's late paperwork than go confront a hollow.

My zanpakuto's abilities acted much like a telekinetic's would, but I could only manipulate reishi so I was rather useless in the Human World. It was great here in the Soul Society though, so most of my jobs revolved around it.

"There you are, Ria!" a cheery and feminine voice called out from behind me.

Turning, I spotted my Lieutenant running towards me, waving an arm enthusiastically.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Rangiku," I greeted her with a small bow of my head.

"I am so glad I caught you before you left the Seireitei!" Rangiku exclaimed as she stopped before me. As usual, Rangiku radiated beauty. Her golden blonde waves glimmered in the sun, her blue eyes big and friendly. Her outfit hadn't changed either, looking like it was a few sizes too small for the size of her chest and exposing much of her feminine gifts. I couldn't help but feel like a shadow in her radiating presence. The only things differentiating me from an average soul reaper were my longer sleeves and the hummingbird kanzashi I wore in my chignon. Even my silky black hair and vibrant chocolate eyes were dull in her presence.

"Did you need something, Lieutenant?" I asked as Rangiku affectionately grabbed my upper arm.

"I am so glad you asked," She said as she spun me around and began leading me back towards the barracks. "You see, last night we had a little too much fun drinking and broke a few things. I was hoping that you could fix them for us?"

I let out a small laugh, understanding all too well how her drinking spells tended to turn out. I didn't even need to ask who she had been drinking with, because whenever something was 'damaged' during a drinking spell, it was always with someone from Squad 11, probably Lieutenant Madarame.

"So, is this an order or a favor? I'm expected in the Rukon District—"

"It's an order!" Rangiku quickly interrupted. "Toshiro yelled at me this morning. Told me to fix it, and I figured you were the fastest option!"

"Well, thank you for thinking of me." I tried not to grumble. These sorts of little tasks always seemed to pop up when there were no disasters to recover from. I didn't really mind though. I may have been 3rd seat in Squad 10, but most of the time, I minded my own business. Being brought in to help the Squad secretly made me happy, even if I tried to act like it was a bother.

"Speaking of you," Rangiku cooed. "What is your zanpakuto's name today?"

Oh yes, Rangiku knew about my zanpakuto's little name issue. So did all of the other seat holders in the squad...

" _ She Who Wants More _ ," I grumbled. "Then she proceeded to mock me! I swear she thinks it's funny that she won't tell me. Instead, she says these things that are just down right predictive!"

"How so?"

"Yesterday, it was  _ She Who Seeks _ , and I spent all day looking for my kanzashi after some kid in the Rukon District stole it," I complained, exaggerating the details with my hands. "Then the day before that, it was  _ She Who Hungers _  and I spent all day craving Sushi. It's horrible! I can't tell if her words are predictions, or if she makes me think things so they happen!"

Rangiku laughed hysterically, dragging my arm down as she doubled over. I let out of huff.

"At least," Rangiku said between laughs, "your zanpakuto isn't as lazy and full of herself like my Haineko."

Rangiku and I laughed and joked all the way to the Squad 10 headquarters. I had always liked Rangiku. She was what I could imagine an older sister would be like. Well, an older sister who enjoyed exposing herself and flaunting her drinking passions. She was easy to talk to, easy to get along with and almost always in good spirits. She had looked out for me ever since I transferred into Squad 10. Maybe it was because I was the only other female officer in the squad, or because we got along so well from the start.

"Ah, here we are!" Rangiku cheered as we rounded a corner.

I stopped upon seeing what she expected me to 'fix'. Compared to the disasters that had befallen the Seireitei in the past, it wasn't horrible, but for a drinking game gone awry, it was terrible. The entire side of the Captain's office was crumbled on the ground, most of the furniture broken in one way or another and bottles littered the floor.

"You were drinking... in the Captain's office?"

"Well, you know how it is. Ikkaku and Yumichika came over looking for the Captain and one thing lead to another." Rangiku shrugged.

"And they got into a pissing contest," I said dully.

"You got it," she said with a large smile. "So, you can fix this right?"

"Yeah, but it's going to take me a while. The building is easy, but fixing the furniture and other items will take time."

Rangiku clapped me on the back hard enough to make me cough. "Great! The Captain is going to be back in an hour so I trust you'll have it done!" With that, Rangiku vanished with a flash step. I hung my head in defeat. She'd ditched me so she didn't have to be around to explain why this stuff wasn't fixed by the time the Captain returned. I should have expected it.

Letting out a sigh, I sat on the ground and drew my zanpakuto from its sheath. Drawing her across my lap, I swiped my palm down the blade, coating the metal with crimson. She hummed in my hands, the hilt and blade becoming warm to the touch as she absorbed the blood. This was how I got my blade to work with me despite not knowing her name. I made a sacrifice to her, and she allowed me to use her shikai state.

"Okurimono no Kontorōru," I whispered. Power flooded through me, coursing around me in banners of light. I focused those banners, turning them toward the rubble on the ground. I needed the extra might of my first movements to put the walls back in place. I was used to fixing buildings. They seemed to break around here like wooden practice swords.

The rubble on the ground lifted and began piecing itself back together. The bonds that held the mortar together were easy to re-establish. They were stiff and unforgiving, so loosening them up just a little was enough to rejoin them. A little reishi here, a little reishi there, and even the plaster that covered the brick was easy to mend.

It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes before I had the wall repaired and looking untouched. The strain of using my shikai had worn on me during that time, forcing me to release it to regain my strength. I took that time to move into the still-destroyed office. The only things that remained undamaged were the Captain's desk and the bookshelves. I silently thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to try and reassemble all those books. The last time I had tried figuring out a book, the pages had been all mixed up.

Letting out a sigh, I found a spot devoid of debris and took a seat. Rubbing my eyes, I leaned against the wall at my back. Feeling liquid slide down my face startled me and I looked at my hand. I had forgotten to bind the wound on my hand after sacrificing to my zanpakuto. Even still, blood oozed from the wound across my palm. I looked back toward the door and groaned as I saw the trail of blood I had left behind. I would have to clean that up before I was done.

Shaking my head, I drew my zanpakuto and ran my palm across the back of the blade. No need to cut myself again if I was still bleeding like this. My first cut must have been a lot deeper than I intended. Giving my zanpakuto a moment to soak up my blood, I used a cloth I had stashed in my sleeve to wrap my hand. It would stop bleeding eventually and I would make a trip to the infirmary once I was done here.

"Okurimono no Kontorōru," I whispered once more. It literally meant 'Gift of Control' and made me wonder what my Bankai would look like.

Sighing I turned my attention to the mauled couches. They would be easier than the coffee table. Wood was such a pain in the ass to repair. Most people would think otherwise, but if the grain wasn't aligned just right, the thing would just fall apart as soon as any pressure was applied. It was really frustrating and tedious work.

I closed my eyes and began focusing on reparations. The cushions were first, re-weaving the fabric and mending the broken threads with a touch of reishi. They didn't need much. Moving onto the wooden base, I lost myself in weaving the grain back together. I made several mistakes during the process that I had to tear apart and redo. Just finishing the first couch took me nearly twenty minutes. When I was done, I seamlessly moved onto the next couch, never opening my eyes to discourage myself from finishing. It was tiring work; with every repaired break, I wanted more and more to drop my shikai and take a break. But, I had a time limit to meet. I forced myself to finish the second couch before I let myself give in and dropped my shikai.

I fell back against the wall feeling drained. If only my stubborn zanpakuto would tell me her name, I thought, this would be easy instead of exhausting. Maybe I should come back tomorrow and finish the table. Rangiku would understand, right? And maybe Captain Hitsu—

"You spent too much energy," a distinct voice said. I jumped and looked around wildly before my eyes settled on the figure at the desk.

"C-Captain," I stumbled over the word. "I didn't realize you were here."

"I've been here for a half hour or so," he said as he skimmed over a small stack of papers in front of him.

"I—I'm sorry for taking so long. Lieutenant Rangiku told me you would be back in an hour—" My rambling cut off when he looked at me. Those aquamarine eyes were no longer set in the body of a child.

It had been over forty years since he had taken over the position of captain, and those eyes of his fit his striking features. He was nearly six foot tall and built with lean muscle. His face wasn't so much chiseled with angles as it was sculpted with high cheekbones and a sharp jaw line. His famously white hair was cut a little long, his bangs falling just over his eye as they swooped off to the side. Even with the same old Captain's haori and his greenish blue scarf and sash, he still looked every bit the man that he was. Everything about his personality finally fit the body. It was kind of humorous to think about actually. Since I had been in the squad, he had always looked like he did now, but I had seen old photos from the Captain Photo Collections that Rangiku had stashed in her office. The difference between then and now was simply striking.

"When I told Rangiku to clean up her mess, I didn't intend for her to con you into it, Yamamoto."

"It's alright. I don't mind," I defended. "Wood is just the hardest thing to get right. All those grain patterns are hard to fix with reishi. If it had just been the building, you wouldn't have seen me here."

"Take the rest of the day off," He said casually.

"Captain?" I couldn't help but to question him. "I'm fine, I can return to duty—"

"Can you even get up?"

_ Touché _ .

"I didn't think so," he said as he glanced back at his papers.

I let out a sigh. "I'll get up when I don't feel like I might fall over, sir."

I sheathed my zanpakuto and made a point to not look at my captain again.

I wasn't exactly weak for a 3rd seat officer, but I wasn't anywhere near Rangiku's level, let alone Captain Hitsugaya. Learning your zanpakuto's name was one of the first steps in power for a Soul Reaper. Without it, most people couldn't do anything but swing a sword around. It was a blessing and a curse that I could perform shikai, but more frustrating than anything. There were a lot of other people in the squad who could perform a perfectly good shikai, so why I managed to hold the 3rd seat was baffling.

"Ria, I hope you're done in there!" Rangiku called from somewhere outside. "The Captain's meeting just got out, so Toshiro will be back soon."

The door to the office slid open and Rangiku started through the door way. She froze in place at seeing our captain at his desk. "Oh." She quickly threw on a big smile and cheered, "Hi Captain!"

"Rangiku," Captain Hitsugaya growled, his voice mirroring his dark expression. "Care to explain why you made Yamamoto clean up after your mess? That is a total misuse of your rank!"

"But Captain," Rangiku whined. "You told me to have everything fixed by the time you got back. Ria was the only one who could do that!"

"I told you to have your mess cleaned up, not fixed!" His voice hiked up a few decibels. "Why don't you ever listen to what I say?"

"I listen! But you can't expect me to have moved all that rubble on my own! It wasn't my fault!"

I had to cough to hide my laugh at their bickering. Trying my best to ignore the rest of their dispute, I used my zanpakuto to help me stand. I managed to hobble all the way to the door before I was noticed.

"Yamamoto, you should rest a while longer."

"I'm fine. I'm just," I paused to take a breath, "going back to my room."

Without waiting for a response, I headed into the hallway. So long as I didn't lose my balance, or let my legs shake any worse than they were, I'd be just fine. Ha…

I ended up having to stop halfway back to my room. I felt like I was going to pass out if I walked any further. I'd passed by a small gathering area on the way and occupied a bench in the corner. If I just took a nap, I'd feel better in thirty minutes or so. Most people were off fulfilling their duties by now anyway, and lunch wasn't for several hours. It wasn't like I really had anything to worry about inside the Seireitei anyway. Lying down on the bench, I passed out before I could even get comfortable.

I had only intended to take a nap. Really, even my dreams were short. Dreams of wind and softness like no fabric I had ever felt. It had been a fantastic sensation. However, despite how short it was, I found myself waking to a darkened sky. The wood of the bench was warm against my cheek and my body was stiff. I slowly sat up, my body crying out with the aches from the awkward position that I had assumed. As I moved, I felt a heavy fabric sliding down my body to rest on the bench and I quickly realized that it was one of my quilts from my room.

"Good morning," Lieutenant Rangiku's voice said, startling me as my head whipped around to see her sitting on the bench that was backed up to the one I had been lying on. She was turned around, her arms rested on the backs of the benches as she smiled at me.

"Is it that early?" I asked groggily.

"No, it's actually dusk," she said.

I held in a groan as I rubbed my face. I had slept all day... I hadn't meant to do that. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"No," she answered as she stood and started walking around the benches. "I just brought something to cover you. There's a chill in the air tonight."

"Thank you," I mumbled. I reached for the quilt and started folding it in my lap. It was one of the first quilts I had made several years ago, and its age, as well as my burgeoning talent at the time, showed in several ripped seams and worn patterns. I had nicer ones back at the manor, but this one was my favorite and normally sat at the foot of my futon.

"Let's get you back to your room," she said. My attention pulled away from my quilt when she knelt in front of me, her back facing towards me.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

She looked over her shoulder at me as she said, "Your hands are shaking just folding that blanket. Do you really think you can make it up four flights of stairs like that?"

I blinked down at the quilt in my hands as I finished folding it and let out a sigh. I was shaking. I hadn't even noticed. I flicked my gaze back to Rangiku for a moment before swallowing any pride the actions I was about to take would disagree with it. I draped the quilt over my shoulder and stood just enough to wrap my arms over her shoulders. With one swift movement, she lifted me, her arms sliding around my knees to carry me piggyback. She turned and started down the path to the dorms, carrying me like I weighed nothing. My chin rested on her shoulder and my eyes drooped as I focused on rhythm of her steps.

She had me up to my room on the fourth floor before I could begin to wonder how long it would take. I hadn't even noticed her take the stairs, which made me wonder if she had flash stepped so smoothly that I hadn't felt it or if I had dozed off. Either way, she left me at the door to my room with warm wishes and directions to be in her office in the morning.

Once in my room, I didn't even bother to get changed into a yukata. I dropped my zanpakuto on the futon before I fell down beside her, relishing in the softness of my comforter. 

 


	2. She Who Chooses

My zanpakuto was really starting to get on my nerves. I wasted yesterday watching my steps through the Rukon district after she told me her name was  _ She Who Falls _ , until finally, I tripped over a damn step on the way home. My nose was still tender after I face-planted on the stone. The day before that, it was  _ She Who Sleeps _ , and I spent the entire day falling asleep at my desk. It didn't help that I was still exhausted from using so much of my spirit energy, but still! It was a struggle not to drool all over the darn papers and that whole tripping incident made me think she was out to get me.

I almost didn't want to ask her today. With my luck, it would be something like  _ 'She Who Makes a Fool of Herself,' _  or  _ 'She Who Is a Joke' _ . Ugh, I really wished I could just shake her real name out of her.

This morning, I was sitting in the common area of the barracks eating breakfast. Normally, I took my food back up to my room, but today, Amagi Kyrouni caught me on my way out. He was the 4th seat in our squad so we saw each other quite often. Amagi was one of those oddly nice guys. In a situation where I would lose my cool, he would still be trying to find a way to make everything work out nicely.

"So," he started to say, "what is your zanpakuto's name today?"

"I haven't asked," I grumbled, looking up at him. He was one of those people with the unique colored hair and eyes. Green hair the color of rich grass and eyes like blooming daffodils, he truly represented everything that was his zanpakuto. His face was soft and rounded, but not like he was packing a few extra pounds. He was just one of those guys that got along with everyone and was always helping others, and it showed in his expressions. It made him so easy to talk to.

"Giving up on learning her name already?" He teased.

"No, but I am tired of getting these silly  _ 'She who blah, blah, blah' _  answers. Why do they have to be so darn vague?!" I whined.

"Maybe she's trying to tell you something."

"I dunno. Maybe? But I haven't a clue what." I let out a long sigh and stared down at my half-eaten plate. "I guess I should go ask her before I'm late." Though, it wasn't like Lieutenant Rangiku would care if I was a little late…

"Can't you ask her here?" Amagi asked.

"Not really. She doesn't always hear me if I'm not actually talking to her."  _ Or maybe she's just ignoring me, _ I didn’t add.

"All right then, I will see you tomorrow Yamamoto," Amagi said as I started to get up.

"You know you can call me Ria, Amagi."

"Ria, then," He said with a soft smile.

I smiled back and shook my head as I stood. Depositing my tray on the way out, I headed for one of the few garden areas in Squad 10's base of operations. It was on the way to Rangiku's office and people weren't typically there unless there was some sort of an event going on. I went there on occasion to meditate and practice working with my zanpakuto. Working with wood was one of my weaknesses, so spending my time repairing broken branches or scars in the bark was fantastic practice. It was also a side bonus that this particular garden had some of the nicest looking trees now. Hehe.

Rounding the corner to the garden, I paused at the sight of the man sitting on one of the rocks. I hadn't ever seen Captain Hitsugaya here before, but sure enough, here he was. His Captain's Haori was missing, leaving him just in his shihakusho and his teal green scarf. The tip of his zanpakuto was resting on the rock while the blade was propped against his shoulder. His eyes were closed, a peaceful and contemplative expression set in his features. He must have been talking to Hyorinmaru, his zanpakuto.

Realizing that I would be interrupting him, I turned on my heel and started back around the corner.

"Did you need something, Yamamoto?" Captain Hitsugaya asked quietly.

I froze on the spot. "N-no, sir. I was just going to talk to my zanpakuto before heading to Lieutenant Rangiku's office." I paused, fumbling over my words before I tried to say them. "I'll just be going. I didn't mean to interrupt you."

"It’s fine," he replied before I could start to walk away again.

I hesitated before looking back at him. He hadn't moved an inch. Even his eyes were still closed. "Sir, how did you know it was me?"

His eyes opened then, pinning me to the spot. "Your kanzashi."

I cupped a hand over the hummingbird and let out a small laugh. "Of course."

The hanging metal plates always made a slight jingling sound, but I never noticed the noise anymore. I had been wearing this kanzashi ever since I graduated from the Spiritual Arts Academy. It was a present from my sister to congratulate me. It was our mother's, and our grandmother's before that. It was priceless, and a reminder of just how honored I was for my sister to pass it to me instead of her own child. We didn't see each other often, so I wore it every day to remind me that she was always there, just on the other side of the Seireitei. It was the one item I carried around that was priceless to me.

His eyes closed and I silently let out a sigh of relief. He could be so darn intimidating sometimes.

Doing my best to pretend he wasn't there, I stepped onto the grass and moved over to a shaded area under one of the trees. I glanced back at the Captain to make sure that I had some distance from him. I had to actually talk out loud to my Zanpakuto, I couldn't just think at her like most Soul Reapers could. For the 3rd seat in the squad, I had, to date, displayed a remarkable lack of talent.

Shaking my head, I pulled my zanpakuto from her sheath and hung her handguard from one of the branches. I pinched her blade between my fingers and turned her so I could see my reflection.

"Zanpakuto," I called to her. A breeze made the leaves of the tree shift and sway. With the changing shadows, she appeared, dark and supremely more ominous than she normally was. I took a step back as she filled the space between my shoulder and out stretched hand.

"Soul Reaper," she replied quietly. Her kimono this morning was black like a never-ending darkness with splashes of crimson and faint blue. Her mask looked like it was cracked down the side, but instead of her skin, there was more darkness shadowing her face. Only her teal eyes remained normal, but even their expression was hardened and serious.

"Seeing you like this makes me not want to ask your name today," I commented as I took another step back.

"She who bleeds," her voice was dark and more serious than her eyes. "She who fades," she continued, her arm reaching out towards me. "She who dies."

Her fingers brushed my cheek and a chilling wave of her power shot through me. My knees buckled and I almost fell before I caught myself and locked my knees back.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, my voice shaking.

"You choose your fate today, Soul Reaper." Her fingers drifted down my cheek, neck, and shoulder to stop just over my breasts. Her eyes softened as she stared at a spot on my chest. She vanished just as abruptly as she had appeared with a final remark. "Try not to die."

I stared at the empty space, my hand lifting to cover the spot she had touched. My zanpakuto had never actually touched me before. I didn't even know that she could touch me. I had always thought she was just a vision, something I could see but couldn't interact with. But three predictions in one day, and… and death being one of them.

"Yamamoto," Captain Hitsugaya's voice came from behind me. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I quickly replied. Reaching for my zanpakuto, I snatched her from the branch. In my haste, the blade slipped from my grasp before I freed it from the branch and dug into my palm as it snapped back up. The pain wasn't something new, it was the same palm that I used to active my shikai, but it was a surprise. I snapped my hand back and stared at my palm in shock.

_ She Who Bleeds _ .

Watching the blood drip from my hand, I lost track of time. I couldn't die today. I mean, I was supposed to be helping Rangiku today. I wasn't going to the Human World or the Rukon district. There was nothing dangerous in the Seireitei besides the other Soul Reapers. There was just no way…

"Ria."

I startled when I heard my name and jumped as I noticed Captain Hitsugaya standing right in front of me. I was at a loss for words when I looked up to meet his gaze. My mouth struggled to produce audible noise as I tried to come up with something.

"I've been calling you for a while now," he explained. His eyes drifted down to my bleeding hand then back to my eyes before he said, "What happened?"

My mouth continued to not work for a moment longer. How could I tell him what my zanpakuto said? I was a Soul Reaper. We were supposed to risk our lives to protect the Soul Society, Souls, and Humans in the Human World. It was our purpose, but hearing my zanpakuto tell me that I would die today was terrifying. I was scared to die… How could I tell my Captain that?

"She who bleeds," I blurted out, finally getting my lips to make words. "My Zanpakuto told me that today. I just wasn't expecting it so soon."

His brow quirked as he watched my face. "Is that all she told you?"

"Yes," I lied. It came out of my mouth before I could stop myself. "Then she proceeded to mock me, as usual." I tried to force a laugh and smile, but it came out shaky and wrong.

His eyes narrowed for a moment, but he stopped watching my expressions and turned his gaze down to my hand. He started to reach for it, but I quickly snatched my hand to my side. I whipped out the cloth I kept on me for performing shikai and quickly wound it around my hand. "Sorry," I mumbled.

"I don't think you are telling me everything." His voice was soft and not at all accusing like I would have expected. "But, you should know that if you need help, it is my duty to be there."

I didn't really know what to say, so I simply nodded. His eyes met mine once more before he walked around me. I listened to him until his footsteps weren't audible any more. Knowing I was alone, I finally fell to my knees. I was going to die today…

Entering Lieutenant Rangiku's office a short time later, I looked around at the empty room. I had composed myself after collecting my zanpakuto. There was just no way I was going to die today. I mean, I was going to sit in an office all day then go back to my room and sleep. I would avoid food so I wouldn't choke, and I would avoid anyone from Squad 11. I was perfectly safe so long as I did that. Yeah...

Shaking those depressing thoughts from my head, I set to getting some work done even though technically, it was Rangiku's work. Sitting at her desk, I began reading over the stack that was set in the center of the desk. She at least put in enough effort to put the important papers first.

Rangiku was absent most of the day, coming in only once or twice to check on me. Apparently, she was off running errands with the Squad 1 Lieutenant, my sort of cousin, Nanao Ise, and wouldn't be back until later tonight. That worked just fine for me. Getting paperwork done without her hanging all over me was much faster. It made the time fly by and gave me no chance to get distracted.

In fact, before I knew it, darkness was eating the sky. Rangiku hadn't returned yet from her errands so I was left to excuse myself from work. I really didn't mind. I left her desk with papers in neat stacks, separated by what she needed to read, what she needed to sign, and what needed to go up to the Captain's desk. If there was more to do tomorrow, I was going to be surprised.

Stepping out of her office, I headed for my room, only to be stopped by the beeping of my cell phone. Without even thinking about it, I pulled the small device from one of my pockets and turned the screen on. I read the screen and smiled to myself. I really was going to die today.

"Report to the Human World," I read aloud. "Perform Konso on wandering soul."

I laughed to myself. It was just a Konso that they wanted me to perform. The sinking feeling in my gut told me that it would be so much more.

Turning back to Rangiku's office, I walked calmly inside and sat at her desk. Pushing one of the stacks of paper to the side, I pulled a notepad from her desk and quickly jotted down a note on it. By the time she got back, it would probably be too late, but I had to let someone know. Even if…

Shaking my head, I left her office. A hell butterfly greeted me as I left the building. Knowing it was there to escort me through the Precipice World, I tried to keep my face calm. No use in freaking out.

Emerging in the Human World was much like stepping through a door. The hell butterfly that had guided me here fluttered back through the doors closing behind me, leaving me to stand alone above a darkened city. It was the middle of the night here, the perfect time to spot the subtle glow of a wandering soul. There was no hint of a Hollow in the area, so maybe I really would come out of here unscathed. I mean, I already bled. That was part of my zanpakuto's prediction. Maybe it would stop there.

Pulling out my phone, I looked up the location of the soul I was supposed to find. It wasn't too far away, just a few blocks by the look of it. Taking in a deep breath, I followed the little blinking light on my phone.

Rangiku let out an exhausted sigh as she climbed the stairs leading to her office. Running around with Lieutenant Nanao had been exhausting, even if it was all in preparation for the festival next week. Buying sake was always fun, but carrying it back was another matter entirely. Why hadn't there been a few other people assigned to their task? It would have been so much easier.

"Ria," She called out as she crested the stairs. "I'm sorry I took so long. Heaving those casks was exhausting!"

The lack of reply from Ria wasn't surprising. The 3rd seat was probably annoyed with her, or maybe she had gone home for the night. It was getting awfully late. Pushing the door open, Rangiku glanced around the room and let out a sigh. Of course, she was gone.

Flopping back into her desk chair, Rangiku kicked her feet up onto her desk and let her head fall back. If it wasn't so late, she would consider taking a nap. Stretching out, she assumed the most comfortable pose she could on the chair and closed her eyes. Thank goodness for Ria's knack for paperwork or else nothing would have gotten done today. Toshiro refused to do paperwork for her any more, and Rangiku just didn't have the attention span for it. If only Ria could write her reports for her too, then everything would actually get done.

Groaning, Rangiku sat up in her chair and put her feet back on the ground. She supposed that she should actually read over what Ria had done today. Just as she was reaching for the first stack of papers, a piece of paper on the ground caught her eye. It wasn't the full-sized sheet that everything on the desk was, but maybe the size of a note pad paper. Ria had probably left instructions, which would make reviewing the work go so much faster.

Picking it up off the floor, she scanned over the shaky writing. At first glance, she couldn't read it because the writing was skewed, so she placed it on the desk and really looked at it.

"Orders to Human World, left early," She read aloud as she scanned down the note. "Zanpakuto told me  _ She Who Dies _  today." Rangiku blinked down at the note, not believing she had read it correctly.

"Oh no, Ria." Rangiku jumped from her chair and dashed out of her office. She knew that Ria wasn't able to fight very well with her zanpakuto. She was skilled with Kido, but if she encountered a Hollow that was stronger than average, there was no way she could defeat it. Unlike most Soul Reapers, Ria wasn't combat trained outside of her experience in the academy almost two decades ago.

Rangiku didn't call out to her Captain when she threw open the door to his office. Captain Hitsugaya's instant words of annoyance were overwhelmed by Rangiku as she slapped the note on his desk. "It's Ria."

The Captain's eyes scanned over the note. He didn't seem to have any trouble reading it as he stood only a moment later. "When did she go to the Human World?"

"I don't know," Rangiku quickly replied. "She was gone when I got back a few minutes ago."

"Damn it," he cursed, running for the door.

This soul was seriously elusive. I had been looking for it for a while now. Down on the street level, it was hard to search a wide area, but it was supposed to be nearby. I had pocketed my cell phone just a few minutes ago, but the lack of divided attention wasn't helping like I thought it would.

I walked the streets for a while longer until I came upon an open lot where a house used to exist. I paused on the street, trying to see through the overgrown vegetation. There was something there, but I didn't think it was the soul I was searching for. Despite knowing what my zanpakuto had said, I stepped onto what had been a driveway and made my way through the bushes.

The sky around me seemed to darken as I moved further in. I didn't feel anything with a spiritual pressure nearby, so I was pretty sure I was walking into nothing. Or, I thought I was until I almost tripped over a soul. Dancing out of the way of the small boy I turned on him and looked him over. He couldn't have been more than five or six years old when he died.

"Hi," he greeted me with a wide grin.

"Hi there," I replied as I composed myself. "What are you doing hiding back here?"

The boy looked up at the sky, a sad look in his eyes. "I died here."

I knelt beside the boy, making myself shorter than him as I said, "I'm sorry. Was this a happy place for you?"

"Yeah."

I smiled softly at him as I held my hand out. "Do you want to go to another happy place?"

The boy looked at me, a curious expression on his pudgy little face. "There's somewhere else where I can be happy?"

"Yes, it's called the Soul Society," I explained. "There, you can have a new family and be happy."

The boy eyed me for a moment before asking, "Can I bring my dog?"

I had to pause for a moment to understand what he had said. "Your dog?"

"Yeah!" He said excitedly. Turning from me he cupped his hands around his mouth to make his voice project. "Come here, boy!"

On command, a small dog emerged from the bushes. For a moment, I thought he was just another soul. He looked like a dog from the side, he even barked like one. But then the boy stepped aside for me to see the dog and I froze. A Hollow mask, covering the dog's face and neck, smiled at me with a toothy grin.

"Yes," I said to the boy, my eyes never leaving the Hollow, "you can bring your dog, but you have to go first."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

The boy cheered and walked back to me, taking my hand with a firm grip. The Hollow sat and watched me, his red eyes gleaming maliciously in the sparse moonlight. Keeping my attention focused on him, I drew my zanpakuto and pressed the end of the hilt to the boy's forehead. With a large smile on his face, he faded into white light and vanished.

I didn't waste any time lingering on the spot that the boy had been in. Turning my Zanpakuto in my hand so the blade faced the Hollow, I stood and took a few steps back.

"Why didn't you eat that boy?" I asked.

He quirked his head at me, like I had asked a silly question. His voice was high pitched and edged with malice as he answered, "Soul Reapers are so much tastier."

I tried to hide the fear that shot through me. This wasn't just any Hollow. If his statement was correct, he'd killed at least one Soul Reaper before. He wasn't mindless either, being able to respond to me and hold himself back from eating that boy. I couldn't even feel his spiritual pressure.

Before I could retort, he lunged at me. I did the first thing I could think of and flash stepped away, running from his attack. As soon as he moved to follow me, I could feel his spiritual pressure. It was like using any abilities brought it out. If I could feel him, I could run for a while. I didn't know how to mask my presence entirely so hiding wasn't an option.

"Scared little Soul Reaper!" The Hollow taunted from just behind me.

I flinched at the sound of his voice and turned to look over my shoulder. That was when I felt his teeth sink into my thigh. I swung my zanpakuto at him and he dashed away unscathed. Turning to run from him again, I felt the exposed flesh tear. I held in my cry as pain shot through my hyped-up senses, and decided then that I needed to defend myself.

Turning back to him, I caught his movements in time to block his reaching canines with my zanpakuto's blade. He bounced back from me and started to circle around. Aiming the palm of my hand at the Hollow, I shouted, "Hado#33. Sokatsui!"

The Hollow yowled and jumped back as blue flames spilled from my palm. I used the distraction to tear away the cloth I had wrapped around my hand. Without a thought, I drew my hand down the blade of my zanpakuto and called out, "Okurimono no Kontororu!"

Banners of light flooded around me as my zanpakuto's shikai activated. I didn't hesitate this time when I saw the Hollow coming for me. I reached into the earth with my power and heaved a wall of concrete and stone between us. Without the material being made of reishi I had to pour my own power into the ground and move the power rather than the concrete itself. It took far more energy to do, but without worrying about having to fix things I didn't have to waste energy on making it pretty. I almost started to smile at myself for my quick action when the bits of rebar in the wall began to glow red. Steam began to rise in a vertical line in the middle of the wall as the material heated. I started backing up, but before I got far, the wall exploded in clumps of searing metal and smoking concrete. A chunk of the wall the size of my fist cracked into the side of my head, but I shook it off as best as I could.

Once the dust from the explosion settled, the Hollow stood where my wall had been. He wasn't just a dog any more, in fact he looked like a beast of nightmares. Where his feet had been, circular blades spun like saw blades. Sparks glimmered around the edges of the blades like hellish fireworks, lighting up the area around him. What had once been his tail was now a scythe shaped blade engulfed in flames. The head of the Hollow was the only thing that looked similar, except for the flames that danced between his huge set of teeth every time he exhaled.

Just looking at the beast sucked away all my hopes of survival. There was just no way…

The Hollow moved before I could even think to react. I was frozen in fear as his tail sunk deep into my back and punctured through my chest. His feet sliced through my shoulder and waist. The tail vanished as soon as it stabbed through me, letting blood gush out from the wound. I couldn't react, the shock of the sensations and sudden lack of breath were paralyzing. The Hollow appeared in front of me, only a few feet away. A hyena like laugh barked from his throat.

The sound jarred me, and I did the only thing I could think of. I pushed my power into my surroundings and wrapped myself in a ball made of the concrete around me. I couldn't move much--the injuries disabled my free arm--but with my hand still on my zanpakuto, I could still manipulate objects. I wrapped myself in concrete and stone, refusing to stop adding to my ball until my sword hand lost its strength and the hilt slipped from my grasp. My shikai fell when my fingers left my zanpakuto, but it wasn't like I could do much more. At the very least, what I had built up around me should take some time for the Hollow to break through. I fell to my knees and slowly sunk the rest of the way to the ground. I couldn't seem to breathe right, my breaths coming in and out in short pants. My head was swimming in the darkness of my ball as I tried to think. What could I do?

Spiritual pressure crashed over me, stealing what little breath I had away. It was so much that I was disoriented for a moment, but slowly I came to recognize its familiarity. Captain Hitsugaya…

I tried to move to grab my zanpakuto, but the strength just wasn't in my arm. Even if I could grab it, I lost my shikai when I had dropped the blade. Panic gripped me, knowing that my Captain was on the other side of my shield and I couldn't even get myself out. If I had just lasted a little bit longer out there instead of being such wimp, I wouldn't have been in this situation.

The temperature around me suddenly started to shift. In my weakened state, I couldn't tell if it was getting hotter or colder. I wanted to know what was happening. Was the Hollow melting through my walls? Or was there some sort of battle going on outside and I was just getting caught in the crossfire? This was horrible. If I lived through this, I was never, ever trapping myself in a ball of doom again.

A distinct cracking sound came from the walls around me. Anticipation welled inside of me, waiting to see if I was about to die or if I was being saved. I desperately prayed that I wasn't going to die. I didn't want to die.

The walls of my ball cracked and fell apart, leaving me to fall over the side and to crash in a heap on the ice-covered floor. My head was spinning with the sudden movement as I tried to roll myself over. I lacked the strength to move, my body refusing to do as I wanted. Arms slid around me and I felt myself being lifted from the ground. I knew it wasn't the Hollow, but helpless as I was, the urge to struggle came to the front of my mind. Captain Hitsugaya's face came into my view and I swallowed my urge to panic. He settled me in the curve of his arm, my head resting on his bicep.

"I've got you, Ria," he murmured as he tilted my chin up and pushed away my mussed hair. "You are not going to die, not today."

His eyes flicked from side to side, watching my eyes as I acknowledged him. "Mild concussion," He said to himself.

"C-Captain," I whispered.

"Save your strength," he said as his eyes darted over my body. I could only guess he was looking at my wounds. In that moment, he looked so… I pushed the thoughts away. I had something I needed to say.

"I'm sorry." My words were slurred with the effort it took to make them.

"Squad 4 is waiting, Captain," Rangiku's voice sounded so distant to me. It was then that I realized that my vision was going dark. The Captain's expression was so concerned as his eyes met mine. My eyes started fluttering closed, but I felt someone shake me.

"Stay with me, Ria, just a little bit longer." It was my Captain's voice, but I couldn't seem to open my eyes. Ice seared across my skin, startling me and making my body jerk. I was held in place by a strong grip as my wounds seemed to freeze over. My hands clenched around fabric as the cold settled in, making my bones ache.

"I sealed her wounds. "Let's get her back to the Seireitei," he said, his voice sounding so close to me as everything faded away. 

 

Pain radiated through my body. It woke me so suddenly that I was completely disoriented when I looked around. Tight bindings pulled at my skin as I tried to sit up. It took me a few moments to realize that the bindings were just bandages that covered me from shoulder to waist. Just bandages… Memories of last night abruptly hit me and everything suddenly hurt even more. My hand pressed lightly over where the Hollow had skewered me, and I realized it was the exact same place that my zanpakuto had rested her hand on. If I had only been less of a coward, I might have asked for help and avoided all of this.

"You shouldn't move too much yet," said a familiar male voice from my right.

I turned my head just enough to see Captain Hitsugaya sitting outside the open set of doors. He was facing the courtyard that I knew was inside the Squad 4 infirmary. Despite his back being to my room, I could feel his attention on me. Glancing around, I found a simple white robe lying beside my bed roll. Stiffly, I slipped it on, struggling not to hurt my shoulder wound in the process.

When I was finally dressed, I stood after a few attempts and walked out of the room to stand beside my Captain. It took a bit of effort, but I managed to sit down without wincing. I avoided looking at him, though the urge to see his face was gnawing away at me in the back of my mind.

"Sir," I started to say but he lifted his hand in a gesture to quiet me.

"Why didn't you say something?" His voice was soft as he spoke, making me cringe.

I fumbled over my words for a moment before I looked down at my hands. "I was scared, and I didn't want to believe my zanpakuto. She told me that I would choose my fate. To bleed, to fade or to die. I thought, 'If I just stay in the Soul Society, I don't have to worry about anything,' and up until I was notified of my new orders, I was confident that I could avoid anything dangerous."

"Why didn't you seek out of the other officers, Lieutenant Rangiku, or myself?"

"I sorta resigned myself to my fate," I mumbled more to myself than him. "I'm the 3rd seat in the squad. Turning to a lower ranked officer would be like admitting that I'm not suited for the position, which, when it comes to combat, I am not. Lieutenant Rangiku is normally a few bottles in by that time of night, and you…" I hesitated for a second. "I didn't want to admit that I didn't tell you about my zanpakuto's words."

I heard him shift beside me, so I glanced over to see that he had turned fully to look at me. I shrank under his gaze, knowing full well I was going to get an earful.

"When you are healed, I want you to start training with Rangiku and I."

"Um, what?" I asked, completely baffled by his words.

"Tomorrow, actually. You'll start training with us."

I looked at him then, a disbelieving look on my face. For the first time since I had met him, I wasn't intimidated by his presence. Right now, in this moment, I felt like I could relax with him. His gaze was intent on me, but it wasn't intense. It was patient, waiting... We stared at each other for a long moment, waiting for one another to say something. There was a lot I wanted to try and explain, but the words sounded like excuses or complaints. I didn't want to complain about things to him though. I wanted him to understand how I felt, but I couldn't express it in words at that moment.

Finally, he broke the silence. "Ria, you may see yourself as inferior to the other officers, but you aren't. Your power is just different from them. I believe that you just haven't realized what you can do."

"I don't mean to sound argumentative, sir, but I don't see what you do. I'm just a dysfunctional Soul Reaper with a zanpakuto that likes to mess with me."

"You are a Soul Reaper who can perform Shikai without knowing the name of her zanpakuto," he corrected.

"But, I still have no combat abilities when it comes to my shikai's powers. I'm not even very fast with Kido and I lack any sort of combat training since I graduated--"

"Then I'll teach you," he interrupted, "so at the very least you can defend yourself."

I blinked at him, shocked by his offer. What else could I say but yes? Letting my one good shoulder shrug, I gave him a small smile. "Who could turn down an offer like that, sir?"

"Not you," he replied. "This is an order."

I started to laugh, but had to stop when ache in my chest became unbearable. "What time tomorrow, sir?"


	3. She Who Grows

The night before…

In the world of the living, Toshiro Hitsugaya stood above an empty plot in a housing development. It was well before dawn in the Human world and the destruction from last night was still present below. A small frown turned the corner of his lips as he studied the ground. Something about his 3rd seat's encounter with a Hollow here bothered him. There had been hollows who could hide themselves from the detection of the Soul Society for long periods of time, but even they eventually had been sensed as soon as they revealed themselves. Ria Yamamoto should have never received orders to come here, or someone should have been notified and backed her up.

Feeling a senkaimon open, Toshiro turned to watch as Captain Rukia Abarai stepped through. She acknowledged him with a nod and strode up beside him. Her Captain's Haori was wrapped around her like a kimono, belted with a white obi to make her form slender and elegant. Today, her hair was up in a shimada, a new style for the 13th Squad Captain. Normally, she wore her hair down, and since she had been growing it out, it was quite the change to see it pinned up and so formal.

"Good morning, Toshiro," she greeted.

"Thank you for coming, Rukia," he returned, his eyes roving over Captain Abarai’s new look.

Noticing the appraisal, Rukia quickly looked down at herself and exclaimed in surprise, "I didn't even think to change when I got your message. I was practicing for the festival next week."

"Don't worry about it," Toshiro replied. "It's just different from what I'm used to seeing you in."

Rukia nodded and waved off the current conversation. "Toshiro, why did you ask me to come here?"

He turned his attention back to the ground. "There's something going on with one of my squad members. I was hoping you would have some insight into the situation."

"Oh?" Rukia followed his gaze to the empty lot. Other than the obvious remains of a fight, nothing seemed amiss, but she could sense the residual spirit energy from a Soul Reaper and traces of a Hollow. "It's not like you to come to me with issues. Who is it?"

"Do you remember Ria Yamamoto? She transferred from Squad 13 to Squad 10 about 5 years ago."

"Of course, she transferred with a promotion to your 3rd seat," she responded quickly. "We still see each other often. She's playing the music for my dance at the Summer Festival."

Toshiro paused, not having expected that sort of answer. 

"Has she expressed any concerns lately?" He asked as he descended to the lot.

"Not really," Rukia replied, following Toshiro's descent until they were both standing in a small clearing of trees. "Why do you ask?"

Toshiro started walking through the trees, his eyes intent on the ground, tracking something that Rukia wasn't aware of. She followed him as he moved, keeping her senses open to try and pick up on what he was following.

"I think something is after her," he said quietly. "Last night she received orders to perform a konso on a wandering soul in this area." 

He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Flipping it open, he tapped a few buttons and held it out to Rukia. She took the phone, scanning over the displayed message.

"That's not out of the ordinary for her. She usually takes on the non-combat missions, she even did so when she was part of my squad," Rukia commented, handing him back the cell phone.

"What is odd is that there was a hollow waiting for her."

Rukia paused for a moment. "You mean she was sent the wrong message?"

"I'm not sure. She was in the Seireitei when she received her orders, but instead of a hell butterfly delivering the message, it came on her cell phone." 

Kneeling, Toshiro traced his fingers across the ground where burn marks marred the cement. "I haven't asked her exactly what happened yet, I believe she is still too shaken by the event to speak clearly. But when I arrived, she had used her zanpakuto to barricade herself."

"And the hollow?" Rukia asked as she stepped forward, following the street some ways to inspect the debris.

"Unharmed. I killed it upon realizing it was going to break through her barricade." Toshiro stood and followed Rukia, his eyes scrutinizing the area until they discovered blood stains.

"I would believe that Ria could kill an average hollow on her own, but the one after her wasn't just some hollow, was it?"

"No, it was far stronger than an average hollow. Perhaps it was close to becoming a Gillian."

"I wonder what would attract a hollow like that here," she murmured as she knelt behind one of the piles of rubble, her head vanishing entirely. When she stood back up, she held a mangled piece of metal in her palm. Dry blood coated the tips of the object, tainting the once avian shape.

"That's what I am wondering. A hollow as strong as that one would have been seeking out strong spiritual energy, not just wandering around looking for souls," Toshiro said as he stood and walked over to Rukia. "What is that?"

"Ria's kanzashi." She turned to him and held it out for him to take. "She'll want to come find it when she realizes it's missing, healthy or not."

"Whys that?" He took the destroyed hair ornament from her and held it gingerly in his hands.

"It holds sentimental meaning to her."

Toshiro nodded as he slipped it into his pocket.

"Something does seem off about the situation." Rukia turned fully toward him, her face set in a curious frown. "Why do you care about what's happening to Ria so much?"

"What do you mean? It's my duty to protect the members of my squad."

Rukia raised a brow while her lips quirked in a small grin. "Uh-huh. That's why you’re all worked up, calling me to the Human World before the cleanup crew can fix this area. If you were being your normal self, you would have just sent Rangiku to take care of her."

Toshiro scowled at her. She couldn't help but to laugh.

"Tell you what," she said, turning away from him as a senkaimon appeared in front of her. "When Ria is with me, I will look out for her. If she says anything curious, I will let you know, but she and I don't really have that sort of relationship." 

She paused at the portal for a moment, then glanced back at him. "Since Momo married Ogido, you've been cold, distant, and rather unfriendly to everyone besides Rangiku. You've even alienated your squad, from what I've heard. Perhaps it's time you opened up again."

I had spent all night tossing and turning in my bedroll. Between thoughts of actually training with my Captain and Lieutenant, and nightmares of the Hollow eating me, I was a wreck when morning came. When Lieutenant Kiyone arrived to release me, she was hesitant to let me go.

"If you weren't going to be with Rangiku and Captain Hitsugaya all day, I wouldn't let you leave," she said with a worried look on her face.

"I'll be fine,” I countered with a dismissive wave. “Thanks to your squad, most of my injuries have healed on the outside."

I patted the set of bandages they had left on over my chest. "My chest is the only thing that actually hurts anymore."

"But you're still weak," she corrected. "Take it easy today and tomorrow. You don't want to reopen that chest wound."

"I'll be careful, Lieutenant," I assured her. Though, I had no idea what Captain Hitsugaya had in store. I guess that wasn't really a promise that I could make… Too late now.

Grasping my zanpakuto in one hand, I used the other to help get to my feet. The lack of sleep and the energy I was using to heal made me a bit lightheaded when I finally stood straight, but I quickly shook it off. I couldn't be falling over in front of Lieutenant Kiyone or she'd force me back in bed.

"Thank you, Lieutenant," I said as I headed for the door. It opened before I could slide it out of the way and Amagi's soft smile greeted me.

"Hey, Yamamoto," he greeted.

"Hi, Amagi," I returned his smile with a small one of my own.

"I'm here to escort you to the training grounds. Captain's orders."

I nodded and waved to Lieutenant Kiyone as I started down the narrow hallway leading to the Infirmary exit. Amagi was close behind me when we emerged onto one of the many paths that made up the Seireitei. With the extra walking room, he came up beside me.

"So, what kind of trouble did you get yourself into?" He questioned.

"The Captain didn't tell you before you came to get me?"

"No, and neither would Rangiku," He let out a small sigh. "I was worried about you."

"Sorry," I apologized. Amagi was something like a friend to me, though we didn't really hang out outside of work hours. Telling him what happened wouldn't really hurt my reputation with him. He already knew about what I could and couldn't do, but I didn’t relish advertising my lack of ability. "I was in the Human World to perform a Konso when a Hollow surprised me. I'll be back to normal in a few days."

"Ah," He murmured. "I am glad you made it back safely." He patted me on the shoulder, pressing harder than necessary. I ignored it as best I could. With only the chest bandages remaining on my body, it wasn't like he even knew I had been injured there. I wouldn't let it show.

"Of course I came back safely," I jested. "I may not be the greatest Soul Reaper ever, but I wouldn't let a Hollow like that kill me." Oh boy, I was really starting to dig myself a hole. If that Hollow had actually decided to kill me, I would have been dead long before Captain Hitsugaya arrived.

We walked in silence for a while. If I had been in better shape, I would have suggested flash stepping to the training grounds. I could probably make it there just fine, but Amagi was slow and not very skilled with his shunpo. If I decided to take a dive, he would try to catch me, and I would probably end up getting him hurt. So, we walked clear out to the Squad 10 training grounds. There were three different places that our squad maintained for training, but two out of the three were near each other. If we were going out to the cave, we'd be walking for a good hour or two since it was on the outer edge of the Rukon District. If I had to walk all the way there, I’d never make it.

"Are you planning on attending the Summer Festival next week?" he asked out of the blue.

"Not exactly," I said with an unsure tone, "why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"

"Ah," I looked over at him to see a hopeful smile on his face. I hadn't expected him to ask me to attend with him. I didn't see him as the sort of guy that I would be interested in courting. When I had lived with my sister and brother-in-law, I had been groomed to be married off to an advantageous family. When I became a Soul Reaper, they released me from any obligations so I could pursue my new purpose without holding back. Despite the change, instilled habits were hard to break. Amagi… well, I didn't have feelings for him and he wasn't any higher in status than my family. There was really no reason to string him along. At least I didn't have to make up an excuse, because I already had plans.

"I'm sorry, Amagi. I'm not exactly attending the Festival because I'm supposed to be helping with the celebration dance. Normally, the Kuchiki Clan holds their own celebration, but Captain Rukia Abarai has chosen to dance at the celebration here in the Seireitei. I volunteered to play the koto for her dance, so I may be tied up most of the night."

"It's alright," he assured me. "I didn't know you played an instrument."

"Yeah. I was born in the 4th district of North Rukon, but my sister married into the Ise Clan when I was four. She groomed me to be a respected lady until I entered the academy. Learning to play several instruments was part of that." My hand instinctively went up to my hair to touch the hummingbird kanzashi, only to find it missing. My heart sank for a moment as I realized my kanzashi was gone, probably pulled from my hair when I was hit by debris. I could only pray it hadn't been lost when the battleground was repaired. What would I tell my sister the next time I saw her if I couldn't find it? I would have to go back to the Human world when I got a chance. It would only take me a few minutes to find and--

"Yamamoto?"

I hadn't realized that I'd stopped walking. Quickly I caught up to Amagi and pushed the sadness in my heart aside. "Sorry, lost in thought."

"Are you well enough to go train?" he asked.

“I hope so,” I said with a small laugh. "Where are we going, by the way?"

"I was told that they would be in the forest, just outside of the cave area they typically train in."

"That will take all day to get to if we keep walking," I frowned. 

"Are you strong enough to make it all the way there?"

"I was actually thinking of flash stepping there, but I don’t want to put you out,” I said with a shake of my head. 

“We can flash step if you are up for it. You should probably take it easy and slow with those injuries anyway.” 

I looked away from him, hiding my guilty expression. He knew he was slower than me when it came to flash stepping, but he was right. With the injuries I was sporting, I wouldn’t be much faster than him, if I could even keep up. 

“I should be fine, if you don’t mind,” I said with a nod. “I just don’t want to hold you up.”

“When Captain Hitsugaya asks, you take it as an order,” he said with a friendly smile. No one in our squad would ever want to be on the receiving end of one of the captain’s glares. How Rangiku managed to not cower away in fear was beyond me. But, they had history. I could only imagine that she had built up some sort of immunity to his flat, irritated stares. 

“Thank you, Amagi,” I said with a small bow of my head. 

“Anytime, Yamamoto. Now, you go on ahead and I will follow. If you have any issues, I’ll be right behind you.” 

I met his daffodil gaze for a moment before I nodded and turned my attention to the walls around us. The first step I made up to the top of the wall was easy, the second as I moved across the rooftops felt the same. I was making good time until I tried to move like I normally did. A sharp tearing sensation shot through my chest as I jumped the wall surrounding the Seireitei, and I almost crashed into a building on the other side. Managing to land on part of a roof without falling, I used a wall to support myself as I clutched my chest. Taking shallow breaths, I looked down at the small, blooming flower of blood on my bandages. It wasn't bad on the surface, but I could feel the pain inside my chest with every breath.

“Are you alright?” Amagi’s concerned voice came as I felt him stop just behind me. 

“Yeah,” I bit out as I let the wall take my weight. I slid down until my hip was resting on the roof tiles and let my muscles relax so I could catch my breath. 

“How bad is it?” He asked as he moved around me. He knelt and started to reach for my hand that was covering the bandages, but I waved him off. 

“I just need a minute,” I responded. He hesitated but seemed to be satisfied with that answer, returning to his feet and turning away. It made me smile. I may have been a girl and someone that he may have been interested in, but he was treating me like the superior officer that I was, and giving me a moment to collect myself. 

I took the time he was giving me and forced my breathing to calm. Struggling against the pain wasn’t going to help me finish the trek to the training grounds. Once it had dulled and my breathing had returned to normal, I stood with the support of the wall, the slope of the shingles making it easier than getting out of bed had been. I tested my shoulder and stretched my chest as much as I felt I could, making sure I wasn’t going to lose myself to the pain again. 

I reached out to Amagi, resting my hand on his shoulder as I said, “Let’s go.” 

I didn't give him a chance to question me as I took off. I kept my steps slow and held my hand over the bandages as I moved. I glanced down every few steps to check the bandages, but I didn’t stop. If I just kept going, I’d make it there eventually. 

Finally, we came up to the edge of the forest. It had been a good ten minutes of flash stepping total, and my body felt the strain as I stopped. I normally didn’t flash step for long periods of time, so doing it while injured was draining. I walked over to a boulder that protruded from the ground and leaned my weight onto it. Amagi emerged from his flash step just as I pulled my hand away from my chest. I heard his footsteps, but ignored him in favor of my bandages. My little stunt had reopened the wound. It wasn’t bad, but it was enough that if Rangiku saw, she would scold me. 

“There you are.” 

Speak of the devil! I hadn’t been expecting her to be waiting for us out here. The cave entrance was on the other side of the woods, a good distance from here. 

“I’m surprised you made it here so fast,” Rangiku said as she emerged from the trees and moved towards us. 

“Ah, Lieutenant Rangiku,” I said hesitantly. If I tried to hide the bandages now, she would just make me show them to her. “We flash stepped here.” 

"You did that all the way here?" She sounded surprised as she stopped before us. She looked me up and down, her eyes stopping on the reddened bandages. "You hurt yourself doing it too, didn't you?"

"I'm fine, I just ripped the stitches a bit," I defended.

“Why didn’t you stop her, Kyoruni?” Rangiku asked as she turned her gaze on Amagi. 

“It’s not my place to tell her what to do,” he answered smoothly. Rangiku let out a huff and rolled her eyes, but didn’t comment on his excuse.

"I don't know what the Captain was thinking. You should still be in bed, if not back at the infirmary for another day or two," she huffed at me. "You look dead tired too. You really should be resting."

"I'm fine, Lieutenant. I just didn't get any sleep last night."

Her eyes narrowed at me, clearly indicating that I had some explaining to do. She turned the glare to Amagi and I heard him shift. “You may go, Kyoruni.” 

He didn’t hesitate to move, bowing quickly and turning on his heel before he vanished in a flash step.

"Ria," she started to say, but was interrupted by a male shout from the forest.

"What's taking you two so long? Get your asses over here so we can do something!" The trees shook from the force of Lieutenant Madarame's shout.

Instantly, I turned away to hide my face. I shouldn't have been surprised that someone from Squad 11 was here. Rangiku and the Captain had worked closely with the Squad 11 Lieutenant and Yumichika Ayasegawa, their 3rd seat. I couldn't be all emotional around them. It would probably freak them out and blow a fuse in their combat oriented minds.

"We're coming, don't get your panties in a twist," Rangiku called back.

"Hey! I don't wear panties! That's something I should be saying to you!"

"Shut up and get over here!" Captain Hitsugaya's voice cut off any further arguing between the two.

Rangiku groaned quietly to herself before turning to me. "If you start feeling faint or whatever, you better say something."

I followed Rangiku as she headed into the forest. The short walk gave me time to clear my thoughts and think about what was about to happen. The shade of the trees was dark, but I had no trouble seeing with the streams of light filtering through the canopy. Coming up to a small clearing, I glanced around Rangiku to see who was gathered there. Captain Hitsugaya, Lieutenant Ikkaku Madarame, Yumichika Ayasegawa, Lieutenant Renji Abarai and even a few other Soul Reapers that I didn't recognize stood grouped in the sun. It was a rather large gathering for what I had been expecting.

Coming up to the group, I did my best to be small and unnoticed. No one seemed to pay me any mind, so I settled in behind Rangiku to listen in on what was going on.

"Today's combat training will consist of sparring," Captain Hitsugaya announced to the group. He waited for the whoops and cheers to quiet down before he continued. "If you plan on using your bankai, head to the cave. If not, try not to destroy the forest during your fights." 

Groups of people began leaving the area, slowly shrinking the amount of people I could hide behind until only three other people were still standing here. 

"If you aren't up to sparring today, head to the cliffs and try not to get in everyone else's way." I started to move with the few remaining people, but Captain Hitsugaya's gaze flicked to me for a moment and he motioned for me to wait before his gaze turned back to the other Soul Reapers. I followed their backs with my eyes as they moved into the trees.

And just like that, I was standing alone with my captain.

He was still gazing off in the direction that the others had left in when I turned to him. Unlike that brief moment yesterday, he was back to assuming the totally intimidating presence I had come to know him by. He looked stoic as ever. With him facing away, his face was more defined in the light and his eyes seemed to glimmer in the sun. Even his zanpakuto seemed to be gleaming in the streams of sun, but his stance was stiff, his hands tense and his expression annoyed. Maybe I shouldn't have come here today.

Captain Hitsugaya took in a deep breath and let it out. With that woosh of air, his face relaxed and his shoulders slouched. 

"I swear they get so worked up just before a fight," he groaned. He slid a hand through his hair, pulling it away from his face only for it to fall back into place. When he looked at me, he looked far more relaxed than he had a moment ago, like the man from yesterday was peeking through.

"I'm sorry if I'm keeping you from training with them," I commented.

"I don't normally participate in their combat training. It wouldn't teach them anything if they put all they have got into a fight, and have no hope of actually winning."

"You're pretty confident," I teased as I tipped my head to the side a little and resisted the urge to smirk. Quickly realizing what I had said, I tried to cover myself. "I mean, you should be because, you know, you're a captain and all."

"Relax, Yamamoto," he said, his voice light. "There's no need to be so nervous."

"Sorry, sir," I quickly apologized. "I've just never interacted with you in such a format. I don't really know how to conduct myself."

"You can start by not being so stiff," he said, turning away and walking in a different direction from where the others had gone. I started to run after him, but the jarring movement made my chest ache so I followed him at a distance. I don't know if he sensed my hesitation, but he slowed his pace until I was walking almost beside him.

"Thank you," I mumbled.

"Why did you become a Soul Reaper?" He asked. The question was totally out of the blue and unexpected. But, I tried to give him my best on the spot answer.

"I didn't want to be stuck in the life I had," I said quietly. "It was good though, my life. I had an education, money to live comfortably, family and a promising future. But, it was just a means to an end in my eyes. I had the power and ability to do something different that would benefit the family name, so I did it."

"Why does your name matter to you?"

I glanced up at him from the corner of my eye. He was giving me a sideways glance back. 

"It doesn't matter to me, per say. Especially not now. But since my sister married, I'm the only Yamamoto left in our family. She was the one who groomed me to be worthy of it. Apparently, our mother did the same for her and I didn't want to disappoint." I shrugged and instantly regretted it as a stabbing pain from my injured shoulder stole my breath.

He didn't ask me any questions for a few minutes. I was pretty sure he was giving me time to work through the pain without showing it. My shoulder and side may have been healed on the surface, but it only helped me to forget that they were still healing under the skin. Just as the pain was ebbing away, we came up to small clearing that looked more like a partial break in the trees. There were several stumps that popped up in the grass, their tops smooth like they had been sanded down.

Captain Hitsugaya walked over to a cluster of stumps that sat in the shade. He took a seat on one of them, folding his legs in front of him. I followed suit, taking a seat on the stump closest to the one he has chosen. Deciding that the surface was large enough I sat with my legs folded at my side and pulled my zanpakuto from my sash to rest it at my hip.

"What motivates you to be a Soul Reaper now?"

I watched his expression for a moment, trying to gauge why he was asking me these questions. My response wasn’t altogether friendly. "You're trying to judge my character?"

"Not at all," he countered. "You've been my 3rd seat for over 5 years now, and this entire time, I haven't known anything about you outside of your role in the squad and your power. To be able to help you get stronger, I need to know more about you."

"Oh," I mumbled. That really did make sense, but then a thought occurred to me. "Alright, I'll answer your questions and open up to you, but I'd like to ask one thing in return."

He waited for me to continue. "I'm pretty sure I don't have to say this, but please don't say anything to Lieutenant Rangiku. The last time I told her about my trip to the Rukon district, I came to find her drunk talking about some stuff I'd told her. I mean, I didn't tell her to keep it a secret or anything, but still. There are just some things that don’t need to get back to my clan."

"Whatever happens or is said between us, will stay between us," he assured me. Something inside me relaxed with his words. I had always been a pretty private person, especially since I had been able to perform shikai. People were such snoops when something was different from the norm, so I'd taken to hiding how I activated my shikai. Most of the officers in my squad knew that I didn't know my zanpakuto's name, but they didn't know that I had to pretty much stab myself in order to get my shikai to work.

"Thank you, sir," I said quietly. "What did you ask me again?"

"Never mind that," He said, waving a hand to dismiss the thought. "I may have ordered you to come here, but you didn't protest. What do you want to gain out of training?"

I didn't even have to think about my answer. "I don't want to be helpless anymore." 

He nodded and his gaze trailed down my body to rest at my hip. I glanced down to my zanpakuto, then back up to him.

"Show me how your shikai works."

I hesitated before reaching for my sword. He'd seen me use my shikai before. I had showed him and Rangiku when I'd joined Squad 10. Why he wanted to see me use it again… maybe he wanted to gauge if I had gotten better with it or not. 

"What do you want me to do with it?" I finally asked him.

I watched as he reached into his haori and pulled something out. I focused on the object, curiosity getting the better of me. His gaze flicked from mine to the object in his hand and back. I didn't care if he wanted to see my reaction to whatever was in his hand. Slowly, he turned it over, revealing a mangled scrap of metal. It took me a minute to recognize the silver and bronze mess in his hand. My hand trailed up with my hair where my kanzashi normally resided.

"You found it," I whispered.

I was off my perch on the stump and kneeling before him in one swift movement. I pulled my zanpakuto from her sheath and gripped her blade in my hand, grinding the sharp metal into my palm and letting it soak in my blood. I cradled his much larger hand in my other palm, focusing solely on my ruined kanzashi. I didn't bother saying anything as I called upon my zanpakuto's power. I didn't actually need to call out the name of my shikai to make it work, so I didn't bother. The power I called focused into banners of light, and I began bending the kanzashi back into its original shape. With my hand still bleeding freely into my zanpakuto, I had more power than usual and was able to quickly reshape the wings and body of the delicate hummingbird.

Pulling reishi from dead foliage nearby, I pushed it from one form to another, creating the metal plates and placing them where they belonged before creating silver loops and lacing them through the plates and the body of the hummingbird. Many of the jewels that had adorned the wing tips and eyes of the hummingbird were missing as well, most likely lost when their setting was crushed. I needed something stronger than foliage to remake the gems. The density of the reishi was much higher in gems than precious metals. 

I closed his hand carefully over the kanzashi with my own before I stood and turned away from him. I needed material to make the gems, and I would need to dig for them. Taking a few steps away, I turned my eyes to the ground. Banners of my power shot into the ground as I searched for what I was looking for. If we had been in the Seireitei, I would have taken down an entire wall for this, but as it was, I needed to find stone and a lot of it. My power brushed across something hard. I circled it, wrapping it with my power. Yes, this would do.

I pulled on the boulder in the ground. It was deep, so deep in the ground. Using my empty hand, I grabbed the boulder with my mind's eye and heaved upwards. The weight was immense as I pulled up. I felt the wound in my chest tear, but I ignored the pain. I needed more power.

"Ask your zanpakuto for more," I heard my captain's voice from behind me. "Don't allow yourself to be the only fuel for your shikai."

Looking down at my hand holding my blade, I frowned. My hand had gone numb shortly after I had started fixing my kanzashi. I was losing too much blood to my zanpakuto, but I was almost done. Asking her for more power was out of the question. She wouldn't respond. I just knew it. I had no name to call her by. Why would she lend me her power if I couldn't call her a name?

"Damn it," I cursed. "She won't listen. She never has, not when I'm working like this." 

I ground my teeth together and refocused my efforts. Adjusting my mind's eye grip on the boulder I put my whole body into lifting it from the earth. The ground a few feet away cracked and began to part, dirt welling from spot. Sweat dripped down my brow as the boulder crested the surface. I didn't bother pulling it the rest of the way free.

"She started listening to you the first time you performed your shikai."

His voice was distant in my head as I worked to compress the boulder down over and over until only a few rocks the size of small gems remained in the air. I held my shaking hand out and brought them to me. Once they were in my hand I blew lightly on them, removing the dust that covered the tiny diamonds. Turning back to my captain, I covered a stumble as I moved towards him. When I went to kneel in front of him I almost fell, but he steadied me with his free hand. Picking up the diamonds with banners of light, I reached for his other hand. He unfolded his fingers when I touched the back of his hand revealing the kanzashi. I sank the diamonds into their settings, securing them with their prongs.

Running my eyes over the kanzashi, I made sure that I had fixed everything before I dropped my zanpakuto to the ground. My entire arm felt cold from the blood loss and I could barely curl my fingers when I turned my palm up to look at what I had done to myself. I was getting light headed too, which wasn't good. I started to reach for the binding cloth I always kept on me, but before I could pull it from my sleeve, Captain Hitsugaya was wrapping fresh bandages around my hand. I jerked, looking up at him with surprise.

"I know how you activate your shikai, Yamamoto. I didn't expect you to do this much damage to yourself though," His voice was chiding, but his touch was gentle despite how tightly he was binding my hand.

"The more I sacrifice to the blade, the stronger my control gets and the less spiritual energy it requires," I responded with a slightly shaky voice. I was having trouble breathing again, but I did my best to hide it and take even breaths. "I think she just resists me less so I don't have to force my shikai to work as hard. Normally, I don't allow myself to do that though, holding my blade continuously."

"You have a lot more power than you think," he said as his gaze flicked to mine for a moment before returning to my hand. "Have you ever done that before?"

I shook my head. "Not like that. I never had a reason to until now. Delicate things take more power to put right. Not enough power, and I'll end up mashing it into an unrecognizable ball."

"You need immense power to be able to force your shikai like you just did," he commented, "but you are expending too much spirit energy making it work. You need to find a way to work with your zanpakuto, to earn her confidence and--" He abruptly stopped talking and turned his head to look to his right.

I heard footsteps running towards us from my left. Captain Hitsugaya pretended to ignore them as he turned his gaze down and continued to wrap my hand. He was putting it on thick, which considering how deeply I had gouged myself, it was probably a good thing.

Lieutenant Rangiku and Lieutenant Abarai came to a stop beside us. As I looked up to Rangiku, I was greeted with a look of shock. For a moment, I thought it was as the sight of Captain Hitsugaya tending my wound until she blurted out, "Was that spirit pressure you, Ria?"

I hesitated before responding with a small, "Yes?"

"Wow!" She cheered. "I've never felt you like that before. Did Toshiro piss you off or something?"

"Rangiku," Captain Hitsugaya growled her name.

"What? You can be pretty aggravating sometimes, ya know!" She defended herself.

Captain Hitsugaya secured the bandages he had wrapped around my hand with a rough tug. I couldn't help but to flinch as a sharp, stinging sensation shot through my hand. I ignored his stare and reached for my zanpakuto. I tried to close my hand over the hilt, but my fingers failed me so I used my other hand to grasp it. There wasn't even a smear of blood on the blade or hilt as I quickly inspected it. My hand was shaking so bad that it took me a few tries to get the blade back into its sheath.

"Ria," Rangiku's voice was soft as she came over to me.

"I'm fine," I quickly said. "It's just a little blood loss."

"You're not fine," Rangiku scolded. "Just look at your chest wound. You need to go back to Squad 4's barracks."

I looked down at myself and couldn't believe how red my bandages had gotten. It was like seeing the blood made the ache that was in my chest exploded into a stabbing, burning, horrible sensation. I didn't let it show though, but this would explain why I was feeling woozy. I shook my head and started moving to stand. My chest revolted against the movement but Rangiku was there to support me as I started to tilt to one side. I could vaguely remember hearing Rangiku's voice in the Human World. She had known just how badly injured I was instead of having just seen the bandages. "I just need a nap. I don't want to take away from your training."

"Captain, why did you let her do this to herself?"

"Rangiku," Renji rebuked, "feel her spiritual pressure. She's not as bad off as you think." I focused on the Squad 6 Lieutenant and gave him a small smile. He wasn't wearing his Lieutenant's patch today, but he was adorning his ever-present headband. Today, his hair was in the ponytail he seemed to favor despite his wife's insistence that he wear it down more often. Their compromise typically resulted in his hair being braided down his back. Apparently, he had gotten out of the house this morning without running into Rukia.

"I'm fine," I insisted as I stepped away from her. "Thank you for your concern though, Lieutenant Rangi-"

A high-pitched ring sounded through the area. All of us perked up at the sound as a hell butterfly flew towards us. Rangiku held out her hand and the butterfly landed on it.

"Attention, all 13 Court Guard Squads," a voice rang through the small insect. "Hollows have been detected outside of East Rukon Districts 65 through 80. All squads are ordered to intercept and eliminate the threat immediately."

We all stared at the butterfly as it repeated its message and took off, flying beyond the canopy. We were outside of East Rukon, all the way past district 80. How none of us had sensed the hollows was shocking. I wasn't strong enough to put out feelers for Hollows in my current condition, so maybe we were just too distracted?

Rangiku turned to Captain Hitsugaya as he stood. "Renji, inform the others of what we just heard and instruct them to report back to their squads for orders." He ordered. He watched Renji vanish before he turned to Rangiku and I. "Will you be able to keep up with us, Yamamoto?"

I shook my head. "I doubt I can even flash step right now," I said as I brushed my fingertips over my bloodied bandages.

"Can you use your shikai?"

I looked down to my hand. I wanted to tell him no, but… "I can if I have to."

He nodded. "Hide yourself then, we will be back as soon as we can." He looked to Rangiku and together, they vanished.

I waited a moment after they left, ensuring that they wouldn't come back before I hunched over and clutched my chest in an attempt to ease the pain. Forcing that boulder up from the ground had been a really, really bad idea. I should have dug it out instead of trying to pull it, but that would have taken time and I probably would have had to stop before I could finish. In the end, I hadn't even thought to take my kanzashi from him.

Slowly, I shuffled over to one of the full-sized trees and rested my good shoulder against the bark. I slid down until I was curled up against the tree, making myself as small as I could. I needed to sleep, but there could be a hollow in the area. Maybe if I just stayed still and…

I was startled awake by a booming noise that shook the ground. I lifted my head only to feel my scabbing wound on my chest crack and hunched back down. Using minimal movement, I glanced around to see the trunk of a collapsed tree. Its remainder sprawled across the ground not two feet from me. My brain couldn't seem to process the change in environment. The tree I was leaning against had been halved cleanly, as if done by some sort of blade.

‘Soul Reaper,’ my zanpakuto's voice rang in my head. I thought I was just imagining her at first, until I saw her appear kneeling before me. 

"Hi," I said with a goofy smile, "what's my fortune today?"

" _ She Who Grows _ , but Soul Reaper," she relayed urgently while reaching out to me. Her hand ghosted across the wound on my chest. "I did not foresee what is about to happen. You need to come to your senses and run."

"Run? But I'm waiting for my captain to come back."

"He will not make it to you if you do not run. Go, Soul Reaper. You must go now," she urged as her hands clasped over mine and tugged.

I didn't understand why she wanted me to run, but feeling her touch shot a sense of panic into my chest. She was genuinely scared for me. Fighting my body's urge to remain curled up, I crawled away from the tree trunks and shakily came to my feet. I started walking off in some direction--I couldn't really tell where I was heading. My zanpakuto's presence turned my steps almost 90 degrees, so I kept going that way.

Something brushed against my back and I glanced over my shoulder to see what it was. Loping just behind me was a hollow that loomed almost ten feet taller than me. Its skin was a splotchy mess of blues and greens except for where its skeletal frame jutted out in points, breaking through the skin to gleam yellow. Its mask looked like it had started melting on its oversized head, leaving stiff globs of white partially covering its eyes. Arms wavering like snakes extended toward me, its fingers searching for me like feelers.

Fear spiked through me at the sight of the hideous hollow. I flash stepped a short distance away to put some distance between the hollow and myself. Those wiggling arms shot after me, thinning as they closed the gap. I flash stepped away again, feeling more tired than ever. The hollow was right on my tail, its arms ever reaching for me.

I raised my palm towards the hollow and half shouted, "Hado #31. Shakkaho!"

A red ball of flames the size of a tennis ball shot from my palm towards the hollow. I fired one after another in rapid succession as I aimed for its outstretched hands. The hollow retracted its hands and used its arms to shelter itself. I used the distraction to put more distance between us with a few flash steps.

After several jumps, I had to stop. Finding a thicker branch high up in the trees, I collapsed and clutched at my chest. I was having trouble breathing again, so much so that I was nearly hyperventilating. Spots were starting to form at the corners of my eyes. If I had to flash step much more, I was going to pass out, and that would certainly get me killed. Surely, I had put enough distance between that hollow and myself to be safe for a few minutes. Using the tree trunk for support, I tried to stand but ended up almost losing my footing. I slouched back against the tree and tried to think of whatever else I could do.

The tree I was in lurched, causing me to nearly tumble off my branch. The tree started to shift, leaning to one side and sliding down. I didn't need to look down to know the hollow had already caught up with me. Sluggishly, I flash stepped to another tree as the one I had been on tumbled over. Just as I landed, I felt the tree give and begin to fall as well. I cursed under my breath and made to step to the next tree when a branch hit me like a baseball bat across my abdomen. All my breath whooshed from my lungs and I felt myself falling backward,. incapable of doing anything. I was going to get eaten by a damn hollow and I couldn't do anything about it.

A body slammed into mine, catching me mid fall before landing roughly on another tree. Tears welled in my eyes as I struggled to take in air. Whoever had caught me set my feet down on the branch but kept an arm around my waist to support me as I fought with myself. I looked up with bleary eyes and could easily make out my captain's white hair and haori. I almost collapsed with relief, but his arm kept me standing.

He held his zanpakuto up with his free hand. He had already released his shikai, the crescent shaped blade held to the hilt by a chain only a few feet long. He flicked his blade ever so slightly and shards of ice formed only to be sent flying down. The hollow below roared, and I felt the tree we were on give way. With a flash step, we were suddenly on the ground several yards away from the hollow. His grip around me tensed as he lifted his sword.

"Hyorinmaru!" he shouted, bring his blade down in one swift movement. Ice shot from the blade, growing as it shot toward the hollow. The head of a dragon formed, screaming as it sped for the hollow. The hollow disintegrated as soon as the ice dragon smashed into it, leaving a staggering spire of ice where the hollow had been. Had I really been running from a hollow that weak, or had he just used that much power?

I finally managed to catch my breath as Captain Hitsugaya looked down at me. "I am sorry, I should have never left you out here alone."

"It's alright," I said, still sounding a bit breathless. "My zanpakuto told me you would come." 

He seemed satisfied with that answer and started to pull away from me. Instantly, my legs gave out under my weight, but he caught me mid-fall and lowered me to the ground. He dropped his shikai and slid his zanpakuto back into its sheath on his back.

"How badly are you hurt?" he asked, kneeling at my side.

"No worse than before," I answered, "just exhausted."

He nodded and moved to pick me up. "Squad 4 is busy on the front lines. I'll take you back to the barracks." 

His arms slipped under my legs and back and he pulled me to his chest like I weighed nothing. I relaxed and allowed him to pull me closer. My senses began fading from disorientation and exhaustion, and only the change in scenery kept me cognizant of the fact that he was flash stepping.. With my eyes closed, I could barely feel the subtle movement he made with his steps, the extra effort he was putting forth to make his movements mostly unnoticeable.

Only a short while later, I felt his movements pause and he took a normal step. I opened my eyes to see he had stopped outside the Squad 10 barracks and was walking toward the small medical wing that we maintained. It was used to treat minor injuries or wounds that didn't require us to go to Squad 4 for treatment.

I was really surprised he had gotten all the way here so quickly. Coming up to the door, he paused for a moment only to slide the door open with his foot before entering. He set me down on one of the treatment tables and stepped back so he could look down at me.

"I am needed back in the Rukon District. You should be fine here," He said as he turned towards the door.

I reached out to him reflexively, catching his sleeve in my hand. His aquamarine eyes peered down at me questioningly.

My voice was soft, just more than a whisper, as I said, "Thank you." 

His lips turned up in a small smile before he turned away and I let his sleeve slip from my fingers as he left the room.

 


	4. She Who Wonders

It was four days later when I snuck out of my room. I had been assigned to my quarters to heal for another three days, but I was getting stir crazy and I felt perfectly fine. All my wounds had healed except for the light pink scars that would be gone in a few days. I was still having nightmares though. 

Every night, I had only gotten an hour or two of sleep. Whenever I tried to sleep, my mind kept replaying that night I was attacked over and over, the dreams becoming worse and more terrifying. I had to do something to keep myself busy, or I was going to become a paranoid mess. 

I had considered trying to sneak back into work, but then Captain Abarai requested that I come to her home to practice for the festival. Since I had lost my cell phone in the World of the Living, the request had gone through Captain Hitsugaya and he had turned her down because I was supposed to be on medical leave. Contrary to his orders, I walked down one of the halls of the Kuchiki manor, led by an attendant. Hopefully, he either wouldn't find out, or wouldn't be too mad. I needed the distraction, and it wasn't like I was doing anything dangerous. The most I had to worry about was Rukia dropping her fan on my head. Or throwing it at me.  

Once you got away from the squad barracks, moving around the rest of the Seireitei unnoticed was best done dressed like a civilian or a noble attendant. So to help sneak around the Seireitei, I had worn a kimono today. With my deep blue and white kimono on, I fit the bill perfectly. It was one of the nicer kimonos that I kept in my barracks room, and since I had been heading towards the Kuchiki manor, no one gave me a second glance. 

"Lady Abarai," called the attendant, pausing by an open doorway, "Miss Ria Yamamoto has arrived for you." 

"What?" Rukia's voice rang out from the room. Footsteps thumped rapidly, and Rukia's head popped out from around the doorway.  

"You're supposed to be in bed!" She accused, pointing a finger at me dramatically. Of course, my condition had been explained to her. It was the reason that Captain Hitsugaya had told her that I couldn’t practice. 

"I am feeling fine, Lady Rukia," I said with a small laugh as I moved into the room and looked around. An empty stand for her kimono stood against one wall while another attendant had the shimmery blue kimono draped across one arm, fussing with the hem. Across the room, my koto lay across its stand with a small raised cushion behind it. The room was barren besides the two objects, perfect for Rukia's practice. 

"Does Toshiro even know you're here?" Rukia asked. Today, she was dressed in a kimono of similar shape to the one she would be wearing for the festival dance. With the longer sleeves and bottom hem, she was a vision of perfect nobility. The purples in her kimono brought out the exotic highlights in her blue eyes and accentuated the highlights in her braided black hair. 

I turned and gave her my best dazzling smile. "I'm not to return to duty for a few more days. This isn't duty, this is play." 

She let out a sigh. "When Toshiro hears that I let you stay, he’ll never let me borrow you again." 

"Actually, it's Lieutenant Rangiku you have to worry about," I said with a small laugh. "I haven't actually seen the Captain since I was put on sick leave, which is really annoying because he still has my kanzashi. Rangiku is the one who's been giving me orders and checking on me constantly. She's worse than a mother hen sometimes." 

"Really?" Rukia said with widened eyes. "I guess I can see that coming from her." 

I walked over to my koto and scooped up my picks. Quickly, I inspected them to ensure that I hadn't damaged them before I started slipping them on my fingers. Unlike the stock finger picks that came with a square tip, I had filed these down into points to help with the precision of my sound. I had seen somewhere in the World of the Living, Humans who wore their picks like this. I tried it out and decided that I liked the different sound the pointed picks made. 

“Ready?” I asked Rukia, turning back to her as I adjusted my picks. 

She nodded and pulled a fan from her sleeve. 

We practiced most of the morning, re-familiarizing ourselves with the speed of the movements and punctuating our actions. Rukia truly was a vision to behold as she danced. She had been doing this dance for years now. Even with the small mistakes she would make as we worked through the steps, she was gorgeous. I could only hope that the music I played was enough to compliment her. 

"I think it's time to eat," Rukia said after several hours as she put her fan down on the edge of my koto. I smiled up at her and started slipping my picks from my fingers. 

"Are we eating in?" I asked as I stood, picking up my zanpakuto from where I had placed her against the wall. 

"I think we should go out," she said, turning and heading out the door. I followed her through the manor. We stopped to slip on our geta before she led us off the manor grounds. Once we were on the streets, she slowed her pace and let me walk beside her. She let out a small sigh and looked over to me. The searching look she flashed had me wanting to check my face for some abnormality.  

"Is something wrong?" I asked. 

"I should be asking you that." 

"What do you mean?" 

She gave me a look that said 'seriously?' 

"I really don't know what you mean. I'm the same as always," I tried to assure her. 

"You look different. I know you are still recovering from a pretty serious injury, but why do you look so weary?" 

I kept my face pointing in the direction that we were going, avoiding looking at her. "I feel fine, Lady Rukia." 

"You don't look fine. It has something to do with those hollow attacks, doesn't it?" 

I did my best not to act like I had been caught in a thought. "No, I just haven't been sleeping well. I'm fine." 

"Quit saying you're fine," Rukia demanded with a humph. "How long haven't you been sleeping?" 

"A few days now, but--" 

"Why?" 

"I'd prefer to not talk about it," I said, giving her a humph of my own. 

"Do I need to tell Rangiku about th—" 

"No! She doesn't need to know. I'm dealing with it on my own," I grumbled. 

"You don't look like you're dealing with it on your own," she accused. 

I looked away to hide the annoyance on my face. Spotting a plausible distraction, I said, "Do noodles sound good?" 

"Noodles?" Rukia's voice perked up as she followed my gaze. 

For a few minutes, at least, I had distracted her. As soon as we walked into the restaurant, cutely named Wok on Fire, we were seated and distracted by ordering drinks and our food. Once the waiter was gone, Rukia's eyes fixed on me. "So, why haven't you been sleeping?" 

"Geeze, you are relentless," I groaned. 

"Ria, I'm not your Captain anymore, but I would like to think that we are friends," she started to say. She pulled her hands up from under the table and started fiddling with her fingers. "I know I have never tried to speak to you like this, but I can't help myself. I'm concerned about you. You haven't been involved in combat for years. It's just not what you are good at." 

"It's nothing like that," I lied. "I still get phantom pains from my injuries. It just keeps me up."  

It wasn't exactly a lie. I still did have phantom pains, but they weren't the reason I wasn't sleeping. I really needed to start wearing makeup to hide the sleep deprived circles under my eyes. Apparently, it was obvious to everyone. 

She eyed me warily for a long moment. "Are you sure that's all?" 

"I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days," I said with a small smile. 

"That wasn't an answer," she said with narrowed eyes. 

"I don't want to lie to you, Lady Rukia," I said, my face falling as I looked away from her. "But I'd rather not talk about it. I'll be alright. I just need to get over my issues on my own." 

Tense silence reigned for a long moment before she sighed. "Alright. I won't pester you about it anymore. But, please know that you can talk to me.”  

I looked back to her and nodded. "Thank you. I will keep your offer in mind." 

She smiled at me, but there was a weariness in her eyes that hadn't been there before. I couldn't fix it, not right now. I could tell she was worried about me, but I really didn't know why. Sure, I looked dead tired but I felt fine, mostly. Our food came and we ate, paid and returned to practicing. We spoke like normal as we chatted and practiced, but whenever I caught her looking at me when she didn't think I was paying attention, there was concern in her eyes. It was unnerving and made me worry a bit more for myself. Did she know something that I didn't? 

A few hours later, we stopped for the evening and Rukia sent me back to the barracks. Apparently, she thought I was pushing my luck by staying out so long. I didn't think that it was an issue, but I followed her directions and left for the barracks anyway. The Kuchiki Palace wasn't quite on the opposite side of the Seireitei, but it was close. It took me several minutes of flash stepping to make it back to the Squad 10 barracks, but without injuries to weigh me down, it was like skipping across roof tops. The speed felt fantastic compared to the slow and difficult movement I had been experiencing the other day.  

Arriving at the barracks, I stopped in the garden area behind the large building. The sun was only an hour or so away from disappearing beneath the horizon. It may have been a bit late in the day to try and get my zanpakuto to talk to me, but I had nothing better to do than try. I hadn't spoken to her since she had saved me from that hollow. Or, it was more like she refused to speak to me. I had called to her numerous times every day, but had never gotten a reply. Sometimes, she would appear and watch me as I spoke to her or she would appear on her own and linger around, but not once had she spoken to me. It was a lot lonelier than I had expected. 

Deciding that I didn't want to go back to my quarters just yet, I took a seat at one of the benches. This area wasn't too far from my room. If they didn't know I had been gone, they wouldn't think anything of me being out here. Pulling my zanpakuto from her sheath, I set her across my lap. She appeared without me calling to her, sitting on another bench across from me. 

Today, her mask was made of thin silver ribbons that wove in intricate patterns across her skin. Her right eye was covered by the metal, the ribbons thinning out as they traveled across her face, leaving her left eye, cheek and chin completely uncovered. It was the most I had ever seen of her face at once. Her teal eye looked at me, blank and unexpressive. Her lips were painted red and gleamed in the light as she turned her head to look up at the sky. Normally, I didn't see her hair, or I was unable to notice it, but today it glimmered in ebony waves down her back, the purple and blue highlights standing out in the slanted sun. Her kimono was an elegant, shimmering icy blue embellished with small pink blossoms that seemed to dance across the fabric. 

I watched her as she looked around, her eyes taking in our surroundings. I wanted to say something to her, but watching her was like watching someone create a work of art. It was mesmerizing and entrancing. I was so consumed by watching her that I didn't notice someone standing behind me until her gaze fixated on the interloper and her eyes lit up with recognition. 

I glanced over my shoulder to see Captain Hitsugaya standing there. He looked as stoic as ever as he gazed past me. I used the opportunity of his distracted gaze to look him up and down. He looked as pristine as he always did, though today he was wearing his more formal Captain's haori. It looked similar to his normal haori, but this one was lined with silken fabric of the squad's colors instead of the more durable cotton. Even the hems were sewn with silk, the shiny strands glimmering on the edges of his haori. 

"Is she," he started to say, distracting me from gazing over his outfit, "your zanpakuto?" 

I blinked. "Is who, what?" 

"That woman sitting there," he said, gesturing towards where my zanpakuto was perched on the other bench. "Is she your zanpakuto?" 

I looked over to her to see her gaze still on Captain Hitsugaya. I glanced between the two of them a few times before I had to words to answer him. "Yes, but how can you see her?" 

"I am allowing it, Soul Reaper," my zanpakuto answered, her words chiding. 

I wanted to throw something at her but turned to face her instead. "Oh, so you do know how to talk."  

She just stared at me, her one visible brow lifted in a mocking expression.  

"Answer me this then you smug little--" I bit my lip to keep myself from swearing at her. Once the urge was gone, I continued, "Why are you letting him see you?" 

"I am always visible to Soul Reapers when I manifest, unless I choose not to be. You are the one who hides when you call me." Her voice was soft despite the subtle bite to her words. Was she bitter that I went to go hide in places when I called her? I let out a huff. I wanted to ask her a lot of questions--to figure out why she had been silent until now--but, with Captain Hitsugaya here, I didn't really want to bring it up. But, she was just…  

"I hide because I have to talk to you out loud. You just ignore me when I try to talk to you in my head." 

"I ignore you when I have a reason to," she said, waving me off casually as her eye went back to glancing around the area. 

I let out a dejected sigh and picked up my zanpakuto. "Before I put you away, what is your name?" 

Her gaze turned to me, her expression completely blank once more as she said, "Figure it out for yourself, little soul reaper."  

She was gone then, just as quickly as she had appeared. I glared down at the blade, meeting my own gaze in the reflection. Groaning, I slid her back into her sheath while muttering some curse words. 

"How are you feeling, Yamamoto?" Captain Hitsugaya asked, taking a seat beside me. 

Snapping out of my mock bad mood, I gave him a sheepish smile. "Just fine, sir. Thank you for asking." 

"Is that why you were at the Kuchiki Palace all day?" The irritation in his voice was clear, but knowing his bickering matches with Rangiku, he was much more pissed off when he tried not to sound angry. 

"Yes?" I said, lifting my voice at the end to make it a question. "The festival is in three days and we haven't practiced together in almost a week." 

"It’s fine, Yamamoto," he said to stop me from continuing, "I understand the relationship that you have with Captain Abarai. I spoke with her shortly after you left her house. If you wish to spend the rest of your sick leave at the Kuchiki Palace, I won't disagree." 

I tried really, really hard not to squeal with excitement. Instead, I managed to keep it down to a big smile. "Thank you, sir. Performing perfectly during the festival means a lot to us. Not doing well will embarrass the Kuchiki and Ise Clans. I wouldn't be able to show my face to Lieutenant Nanao or Head Captain Kyoraku ever again if I made a big mistake. Or Captain Kuchiki." 

"Why the Ise Clan?" He asked, lifting a quizzical brow. 

"My sister married Nanao Ise's cousin, Daichi Ise. She was my guardian at the time, so I was brought into the clan. Despite my name never changing, my actions reflect upon the Ise Clan in their eyes. They wouldn't let me change my name because I've possessed the possibility of being a Soul Reaper since my sister married, and therefore I could end up having my own unique zanpakuto, which is against the Ise Clan's traditions. It was Lady Nanao's decision, which I am grateful for now." 

"Despite that, they still hold you to the same standards?" 

"Yeah." I sighed and turned my gaze down to my zanpakuto. "Lady Nanao is pretty strict as the head of the clan, but she's usually so busy assisting Head Captain Kyoraku that I don't see her outside of special events. As a Soul Reaper, I don't come up on the elder's radar often, but when I do, it's a big deal that I don't mess up." 

He nodded and turned away. We sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the breeze as it ruffled the leaves in the trees. Without looking at me, he asked, "What were you and your zanpakuto discussing?" 

"Sorry about her, sir," I said, "She's been giving me the silent treatment for a few days now. Today was the first day she's said anything to me since she got spooked in the forest." 

"Spooked?" 

"Well, normally, she's pretty much the same, emotions wise. Even when--" I had to hesitate. Talking about anything on that day that the first hollow attacked me was still difficult. The nightmares were still so vivid that the thoughts alone made me shudder. "--when she knew I might die, she was calm and collected albeit scary as hell. But in the forest, she was in a panic. She didn't just touch me, she pulled me to my feet--something she's never done before--and guided me. She said that she 'didn't foresee what was coming.’" 

"Some zanpakuto can physically manifest, like you've described," he started to explain, "Take Renji Abarai's Zabimaru, or I'm sure you learned about Muramasa at the academy. That in itself isn't surprising, but you said she was surprised by the situation?" 

"Yes." I folded my hands in my lap and watched them as I thought back. "When she first started giving me these ridiculous names, I thought she was just messing with me. Like the day she told me,  _She Who Slips_ , I ended up going out drinking with Rangiku and slipped on the wet stairs out of the tavern. Up until a week ago, her names had always been like that, almost prankish. But despite their intent, she knew what was going to happen to me that day. She knew everything. But, that day in the forest, it was like what was supposed to happen changed." 

"What do you think happened?" 

"Fate changed," my zanpakuto said as she manifested before us. I couldn't help but jump at her sudden arrival. I looked down at my sword to make sure that the blade was still securely in its sheath. She'd done this a few times over the past few days, but it was still incredibly unnerving. 

Hitsugaya turned his body to face us, his eyes intent on my zanpakuto's manifestation. "What do you mean fate changed?" 

"Fate changed. My Soul Reaper was to be safe.  _She Who Grows_  was her name. There may be many names in a day, but they do not change. Some are more prominent, others are not, but they are a constant." She stood straight and shuffled delicately away from us, her feet barely making noise in the grass. 

"So, you intervened?" 

"Yes, she is my little Soul Reaper. I will not accept someone toying with her fate. If I predict her to die, then she will die. Someone giving her a name that I did not foresee -- that is against the rules." 

"Someone?" 

She turned her head just enough to glance over her shoulder at him with that incredibly teal colored eye. "You are smart. You are starting to understand. She will not understand until it slaps her in the face." 

And she vanished. Of course, she would just disappear like that. Was it her purpose in life to make me sound like I was an idiot? 

Captain Hitsugaya was silent beside me as I looked over at him. He looked deep in thought as his eyes remained on the spot where my zanpakuto had been. I couldn't help but watch his face as he thought through whatever was in his head. It was clear that something was bothering him. I could only suppose that I should have thought something was wrong with what my zanpakuto had said, but I didn't really know what to think. Hollows had appeared in the Rukon District, that event alone wasn't abnormal. Now, they didn't typically show up in amounts that required all the Court Guard Squads to respond too, but such an event would surely be able to change someone's fate. My zanpakuto couldn't possibly see everything. Then again, I didn't really know just how strong she was. 

"Captain," I began, waiting for his acknowledgement, "I'm sorry about my zanpakuto. I didn't even know that other people could see her, so I wasn't prepared to deal with her." 

"Has she ever explained her abilities to you?" he asked in return. 

"No, not really. She usually leaves me guessing. I wish I knew why she was actually talking to you. She treats me like a little toy most of the time." I couldn't help but pout at the thought. "Won't understand until it slaps me--ugh. Maybe if she would talk to me I'd understand." 

Captain Hitsugaya stood abruptly and started walking away. I stood at the same time and watched his back as he moved. Had I said something wrong? I hadn't meant to. 

"Sir," I called out to him as I followed his path. He paused and turned back to me, but even with his attention on me, he seemed distracted. "Why did you come down here? Before my zanpakuto distracted you." 

He seemed to perk up at the change in conversation. He walked back towards me, meeting me halfway. He reached into his shihakusho, pulling my kanzashi from his inner pocket. "I've been meaning to give this back to you," he said as he offered it to me. 

I reached out and took it from him, our fingers brushing lightly during the exchange. I looked down at my kanzashi and turned it over, examining it like I hadn't seen it in years. I had repaired it perfectly, every strand of silver, every ribbon of bronze, every gem just like they should have been. And he had kept it on him this whole time, safe and undamaged. 

"Thank you," I said, turning it over once more. 

He hummed his reply and started to turn away again. I started to reach for him but caught myself mid-motion. He had other things to do, so why was I trying to detain him? The past few interactions I had with him had given me a false sense of familiarity. I needed to remember that I was just his 3rd seat and he was my captain. We weren't friends or anything… so why was I reaching for him? 

He turned back to me as if sensing my movement. His eyes watched, lingering on my out stretched hand for a moment before he fully faced me. "Is everything alright?" 

I pulled my hand back realizing that he knew I had wanted something. But, what? What had I wanted? 

"I'm sorry, it's really silly, but," I improvised, holding up my kanzashi, "I can't put this in without a mirror. Do you think you could?" 

His expression softened for a moment and he nodded. I started to reach out to offer him my kanzashi, but hesitated when he stepped closer to me. Standing this close to him, our height difference was evident. He was almost a foot taller than me, the top of my head barely coming up to his shoulders. I hadn't realized just how much bigger than me he was. It wasn't like he looked small, but he had a fit and slender frame that was deceiving with the extra size that his shihakusho gave him. 

… 

What? 

Since when had I started paying attention to his body? 

His face though, and those eyes. 

Damn it, that really wasn't much better. 

"May I?" He asked. 

A blush heated my cheeks as I gazed up at him. "Um," I fumbled over my words. "Do you know how it should look?" 

"I've seen you wearing it for years," he commented sarcastically. 

I laughed at myself and turned my head to show him my chignon. "Please do, then."  

His hand covered mine as he pulled the kanzashi from my grip. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach when the prongs of the kanzashi slid along my hair, light and almost tickling. I tried to remain as still as I could, but suddenly, I was nervous. The prongs met the ribbons I had used in my chignon and he hesitated. 

"It’s fine," I said, using my own hand to move the braids slightly, so as he was looking down, he could see the blue ribbons that were keeping my hair in place. "Just avoid the ribbon." 

"Ah," he replied, more to himself than me. As I brought my hand back to my side, I watched him lift his. His other hand came up and brushed across my neck as he made to hold my chignon still and he tried to slide the kanzashi into place once more. 

I had never been this close to him before, outside of when I was injured. Hell, I hadn't ever been this close to a man without some sort of violence or training involved. Even when he carried me a few days ago, I hadn’t noticed the clean and almost earthy scent that lingered close to his skin. It was so delicate that, if I hadn't almost had my nose pressed into his haori, I would have never noticed. It was like, even when he was suppressing his spiritual pressure, some of the residual effects were still present. Or, he just naturally smelled like this, but I suspected he was just that powerful. I wanted to press my nose to his chest, to better scent that which was him and to feel the softness of his haori against my cheek. 

Just as I started to lean into him, I caught myself. What was I thinking? Even if I could admit that I was attracted to him, I certainly couldn't do something like that. I represented the Ise Clan, even if I didn't have their name. Even if I didn't represent them, I was still a lady. Everything about what I had been thinking was improper. He was my superior. I was just a subordinate. I needed to drill that into my head before I got myself into trouble. 

I felt the prongs of the kanzashi slide into place, the chiming of the silver ribbons a familiar sound as he released them from his grip. Though the hand that had been guiding my kanzashi retracted, his other trailed down from my chignon to rest on my shoulder. I kept my eyes focused on his haori and didn't move. I knew I was still blushing, I couldn't help it. He was so close to me, and despite my resolve not to do something stupid, I could still smell his alluring scent. 

"Ria," his voice was like a coo to me. 

My mouth went dry. He had never said anything to me like that, let alone my name. Slowly, I lifted my face to see his. His eyes were full of concern as he gazed down at me. His nose was only a few inches from mine. We stared at each other for a long moment, neither one of us saying anything. His hand squeezed my shoulder lightly causing me to do my best to suppress a shudder. 

"Sir?" I responded to him finally, my voice a whisper. 

"For the next few days," he started saying, but corrected himself, "for the next while, tell me if you feel threatened in any way." 

"Why would I feel threatened?" I asked. 

"Please, just do it," he said, his grip on my shoulder firming. "Anything that makes you feel even the slightest bit concerned. I don't care if you think it would just be a bother. Tell me, and I will be there." 

"Why are you worried about me?" 

"You are mine to protect," he answered, his words sounding automatic like a reaction, "and I haven't done my job twice now. I won't let it happen a third time."  

His hand slid off my shoulder, his fingers tracing over where I knew the pink scar was still healing as he pulled away. The tender new skin tingled as he stepped back, and I had to wonder if had touched me there intentionally.  

I bit my lip as I nodded. "Alright." 

His eyes trailed over me from head to toe before he turned and disappeared with a flash step. My hand instantly went to my chest to try and sooth my racing heart.  

What had all of that… just been?


	5. She Who Struggles

The next few days went by in a flash. I spent my nights in my room at the barracks and my days between the Kuchiki Manor with Rukia, and somewhere in the outdoors trying to talk to my zanpakuto. On the day of the festival, I spent all morning at the Ise Clan's compound getting dressed for the evening. My sister greeted me when I first arrived, but she had been on her way out so I only saw her for a few minutes before I was swallowed up by attendants. Once they finished their fussing, I hid from the world in my room until it was time for me to emerge.

Freshly scrubbed down with oils and perfumes, I had been forced to wait for hours as my hair and makeup were done. Getting dressed had only taken about thirty minutes, but now I could barely move. It was a really good thing I wasn't going to be playing something that required a lot of movement, or I'd have been in trouble. I couldn't even carry my zanpakuto in this outfit, so I was going to be leaving her in my room for the evening.

Turning to the full-length mirror, I took in my appearance. Unlike my normal chignon that rested at the base of my hairline, the stylist had done my hair up, the chignon placed almost on the top of my head with the smooth line of my hair drawn back to fold around to the underside of the bun. My hair was thick, but the styling made it look like I had much more hair. I wasn't allowed to wear my hummingbird kanzashi because it was out of season for the festival. I had almost argued, but before I could even start to come up with a good defense, they had pinned me with midnight blue and purple blossoms that draped down just below my ears. They were soft against my skin, tickling my cheek when I moved.

The kimono I had been tied in matched the blossoms perfectly. Much of the kimono was a black so pure that it almost looked blue when it caught the light right. From the obi down, petals as blue as the ones in my hair began to fall, their numbers increasing until elegant blossoms ranging from a deepest of blues to the most vibrant purples crowded the fabric. The haneri was a similar shade of blue as the kanzashi, leaving my skin as the brightest thing about the outfit. I wasn't even wearing much makeup, just enough to even out my skin, hide the dark, sleep deprived circles under my eyes, and accent my eye color and lips, but with the depth of color in my kimono and my own silky black hair, I looked completely pale.

Dressed like this, I looked a lot like my zanpakuto.

"You just need a mask," she chimed in. I rolled my eyes and watched her through the reflection of the mirror. She had started talking to me again, but we only seemed to argue instead of talking the past few days.

"Too bad it's not that kind of party," I commented bitterly.

"Aw, you know you're excited," she said slyly as she came to stand behind me in the mirror. Her entire face was covered by her mask today. A heavy white veil emerged from the edges of the mask covering hair down to her shoulders. Her outfit was a plain maroon kimono that was a pristine as ever. Overall, she was completely unimpressive today. It was like, besides the mask, we had completely swapped places today.

"Of course, I'm excited," I said, eyeing my reflection. "I haven't performed in front of people in years. It's exhilarating."

"I think you're just excited to perform for a certain someone," she teased. I gave her a funny look in the mirror.

"Not in particular. Lady Nanao isn't attending today, and neither is my sister."

She gave me a thousand-yard stare. "Are you really that dense?"

She knew I wasn't, but I couldn't let myself be misled by my feelings. My captain was just concerned about me. It wasn't any different from Lady Rukia or even Rangiku. It was just because he was a guy. A very attractive, perpetually annoyed, and somewhat scary guy that spoke my name like that—

"So, you're not that dense," my zanpakuto teased.

"Oh, shut up!" I yelled at her, throwing a fan from my sleeve at her. She disappeared for a second, dodging the lightweight projectile, before reappearing. "You never listened to my thoughts before, so stop using them to piss me off!"

"I always listen," she corrected me. "What you fail to do is listen back."

Controlling my anger was difficult as I glared at her through the mirror. "That's because you never say anything for me to listen to!"

She was silent for a moment. I couldn't read her expression under her mask, so all her silence did was make me even angrier.

"Soul Reaper," her voice was soft. The change in her tone had me forgetting my anger as I turned to her.

"Zanpakuto?"

"She Who Struggles," she said, the tone of her voice sounding sad. "Stay near those you know you can trust tonight."

"Why are you suddenly giving me a name again? What's supposed to happen?"

"Stay near those you trust," she repeated. She vanished just like she appeared, leaving me staring at empty space. Part of me wanted to be mad at her sudden disappearance, the other part wanted to shake my zanpakuto until she came back out. What was I supposed to be struggling with? Clearly it wasn't my stray emotions. She would have been smug about that name instead of serious. But still, her tone of voice… Was this worth bothering Captain Hitsugaya?

A knock sounded on my door, drawing me away from my thoughts.

"Who is it?"

"Misa Itachi, an attendant from the Ise Clan," a feminine voice came from the other side of the door.

I rushed over to the door and slid it open. "Clan attendants aren't usually allowed into the barracks. What are you doing here?"

The woman that stood before me was taller than me by several inches and looked like a man except for the cleavage that clearly stood out from her kimono. I almost took a step back when I saw her square jaw and bare, muscular arms that were almost as big around as I was.

"Your Koto was delivered to the Celebration Stage. I'm here to escort you to the area."

Gosh, she sounded like a small petite woman. Hearing that voice come out of that square jaw was just bizarre.

"Oh, I don't need to be escorted. I can-"

"I was directed by the Elder Council to escort you, Ria Yamamoto. You aren't a Soul Reaper tonight. Tonight, you are the only representative of the Ise Clan attending Gotei 13's Summer Celebration Festival. It is my duty to stay by your side until your performance is completed."

"Oh, okay," I said in a very small voice. No one had told me that I was going to have to deal with these formalities tonight. Had my zanpakuto been warning of my impending political doom? Disappointing the clan would certainly have some particularly bad fallout. I wasn't even supposed to do anything special tonight. Sit down, play music, go party. Done.

"Now come, we shall walk there." Her order was like an absolute and unquestionable demand. I quickly ducked back into my room and grabbed my picks, fan and umbrella. Sliding the first two into my sleeves as I donned my geta, I stepped out the door and quickly caught up to Misa at the stairs. She led the way down the stairs and as we walked out into the barracks courtyard, I could feel eyes on me. Quickly, I opened my umbrella and used it to shelter me from the evening sun and the prying eyes of my fellow squad mates.

Misa set a slow pace as we headed for the celebration stage. Many people were running around, setting up for the evening's festivities or already engaging in small gatherings. People were happy as they moved about; laughter and light hearted voices could be heard everywhere in the typically quiet Seireitei. I couldn't help but be a little jealous of all the happy expressions around me. Outside of my family and the few people that I did socialize with, I didn't have much of a social life. It was my own fault really, but it was times like this that envy smoldered inside me.

"Ria," Rangiku's voice called out. I paused, ignoring Misa's grunt of displeasure.

Looking down one of the corridors we had been about to pass, I smiled at my Lieutenant. She was already dressed up for the evening's events. Her kimono was just like her shihakusho and revealed most of her gifted cleavage, while the obi somehow pulled the fabric together to accentuate her tiny waist and curvy hips. Her blonde hair was partially pulled back into a clip while loose strands fluttered around her neck and face. Her ever present chain necklace was still around her neck but her pink scarf was absent. I could only assume that the pink didn't go well with the white and orange kimono into which she had squeezed herself.

"Lieutenant Rangiku," I said in greeting.

Misa started to walk between us, but I quickly stepped in front of her.

"She is my Lieutenant. Despite what you think, I'm still the 3rd seat of Squad 10 tonight. Don't try to overrule me in my duties," I said, my voice having lost its timid acceptance of her orders. The look Misa gave me wasn't the friendliest, but she stepped back and pretended to pay attention to something in the distance.

"Wow, so you really do belong to the Ise Clan," Rangiku commented as she stopped in front of me.

"Yes," I said with a slight nod. "Is something up?"

"No, I just wanted to wish you good luck tonight. I was heading to the barracks when I felt you out here already."

"Thank you. My instrument is already at the Celebration Stage, so we left early to get set and check the tuning."

"Ah, that makes sense." She smiled at me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "The Captain and I will be there when you and Rukia perform. So, you better do your best. You're representing Squad 10 after all."

"Geez, way to add more pressure," I said sarcastically.

"If you mess up, you have to clean up after the celebration!" She laughed loudly and started walking towards the Squad 10 barracks. I silently shook my fist at her in mock anger.

"Come," Misa said only a few seconds after Rangiku had started walking away.

I let out a silent sigh and turned to follow her once more.

It was only a twenty minute walk or so at a brisk pace to the Celebration Stage. At a Misa pace, it was more like thirty minutes. By the time we got there, we only had twenty minutes before the dance was supposed to take place. Upon arriving, I handed Misa my umbrella and told her to stay away from the stage while I was tuning. She had set up my koto before coming to get me, but she hadn't bothered putting in the bridges that gave each string its note. There were many people already in the area, but for the most part, they were standing away from the stage. Rukia wouldn't come out until it was time for her to dance, so I had the stage to myself for the moment.

Settling down behind my koto, I adjusted the stand so it hovered just over my lap. Slipping on the picks I had brought with me, I began adjusting the bridges and tuning my strings. It didn't take me long to be satisfied with how my koto sounded. Just to make sure everything was good, I started playing a simple melody, adjusting the song so it flowed over all the strings. I made a few minor adjustments to the bridges and sat back. Gazing around, I was a little startled at just how much the area had filled up with people. From the average soul reaper to most of the captains, the area was filled.

I placed my hands in my lap and did my best to just become part of the stage. I wasn't here to shine. It was Rukia's night, and I was just here to assist her. It was one of the reasons that I had been dressed in a mostly black kimono. Sitting here, the only color I displayed was the blue and purple kanzashi in my hair. Even my koto had been varnished with a very dark color, but that wasn't intentional. It was just the one I had picked out years ago, when I graduated from my practice koto.

I felt eyes on me, more than what was just from the crowd. I looked around, searching for any gaze that stood out. Then, I met those aquamarine eyes of a certain captain. I held his gaze for a long moment before I finally reacted to him.

'Ria…'

A blush lit up my cheeks, but I quickly hid it with a nervous smile. Why did he have to say my name like that, damn it! His expression was serious like always. Watching, observing, thinking all in one steady look. I started to open my mouth to say something, but I quickly closed it. He wouldn't hear me from all the way over here. I would have to find him after Rukia's dance. I had to tell him—

Rukia appeared in a flash step at the center of the stage. She appeared so fast, that I didn't even see her take her pose for the beginning of the dance. How long had she been planning that entrance? She hadn't mentioned it to me.

Most people hadn't even noticed her appearance. The crowds were still noisy, chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the entrance that had already happened. I watched Rukia's back for a moment. She made no move at all to tell me what to do. She was supposed to start the dance, queuing the music start with the flick of her fan. But, how long would it take a crowd this big to grow quiet?

Taking the initiative, I started playing something besides the song she was supposed to dance too. I started quietly, playing a complicated but slow melody. I glanced up every few bars to see people slowly paying attention to the stage, but it was only those who were close. I picked up my pace, playing louder as I went. After a few more bars, I saw mostly everyone's gaze was on the stage, so I started dialing back the volume and the pace. By the time I ended the song, everyone was staring at Rukia and waiting quietly for something to happen. I flexed my fingers and settled back, waiting for Rukia's command.

Her fan snapped closed, and I took to my strings.

My fingers flew over the strings, plucking notes and chords as Rukia danced. Her fan twirled, hands arching, face full of expression. I kept my eyes on my strings, only glancing at her during pauses in the music or when I needed to make sure we were in sync. Power radiated off Rukia, drawing everyone's attention to her like bees to a flower. Glitter seemed to sparkle in the air around her, but knowing her, it was a sprinkle of snow that she was manifesting with her reiatsu.

Before long, I struck the final chord. Rukia was frozen on the stage, her fan held open above her as she held an elegant pose with the rest of her body. The remnants of my chord seemed to echo through the Seireitei until the entire area fell into silence. My heart thudded in my throat as I held my gaze down on my koto. Being close to Rukia, I could hear her breath coming out in light pants as she held her pose. The glitter that had been dotting the air were now fully formed snowflakes, but with the setting sun reflecting on them, they looked like fireflies burning around her.

Footsteps padded onto the stage and I glanced up, only moving my eyes to see the bottom of a pink kimono.

"Let the celebration begin!" Head Captain Kyoraku's voice called out. Cheers exploded from the crowded Soul Reapers at his words. I relaxed back and pushed my koto away from my knees. Rukia stepped towards me from where she had posed, and smiled down at me. I smiled back and rose to my feet.

Just as we started to say something to one another, Rukia was swarmed by people who had come up on stage. I waved goodbye as a herd of her subordinates and friends ushered her off the stage and into the crowd. I laughed quietly to myself as I watched her be swept away. Making my presence small, I slipped my picks from my fingers and turned to exit the stage area from the other side. I knew Misa would be taking my koto back to my room for me, so I didn't need to pack it up. Carefully picking my way down the steps, I had to stop before I reached the bottom because someone was standing in my way. Looking up from my feet, I couldn't help but to smile at Amagi.

"Hey there," I greeted him.

"That was an amazing performance," he said, returning my smile with a cheerful one of his own. He was dressed in a deep burgundy kimono with grey hakama and an equally burgundy haori over it. The colors made his green hair and daffodil eyes pop. He had really outdone himself dressing up tonight.

"Thank you," I said, accepting his compliment. He held his hand out to me and I took it, using it for balance as I took the last step down. He held my hand for a moment longer than necessary to help me down the steps, but I didn't say anything. He was being nice, and I could appreciate that.

"You really do belong to one of the noble houses, don't you?" He asked, his eyes taking in my appearance.

I shook my head and slipped my hand out of his. "Not really," I denied. "I'm just a distant relation. Still just a Yamamoto."

"Even so, with the Yamamoto name, it's no wonder that you look like a noble woman," he commented.

I started to correct him, but I was distracted when I heard my last name shouted out above the thinning crowd. Turning, I was instantly greeted by a bear hug and Rangiku's oversized breasts in my face.

"Yamamoto, that was fantastic! I didn't know you could play like that," she gushed, squeezing me tighter as she swirled around. "We need to celebrate!"

The voices of several other people surrounded us, cheering words of praise and jabbering amongst themselves. I struggled to pull my face out of Rangiku's breasts to breathe, but she just kept holding me as she chatted with the other people around us. Giving up on pulling away from her I slipped my hand around her body and gave her butt a firm pinch. She jumped, her arms releasing me and going to clasp over her butt as she let out a high-pitched squeak of surprise. Laughs exploded from the small crowd around us as I gasped for breath.

"Come on, 3rd seat Yamamoto," one of the men on my right said. "Everyone's back at the barracks celebrating already."

I looked up at the man and smiled. It was one of the soldiers in my squad. I typically didn't interact much with the squad members because my duties were unique. Unlike most of the other officers, I wasn't in charge of my own unit. As the third seat, it was typical for me to have my own soldiers, but since I didn't, I was shocked that there were so many members of my squad here. There must have been twenty of them gathered around us. This opening celebration dance was really just a formality, so for them to have come it really warmed something in my heart.

Having recovered from the shock of her butt getting pinched, Rangiku swung an arm over my shoulders and started leading me away.

"Come on, Ria, it's not time to dawdle! There's Sake waiting for us at the barracks!" She cheered. I stumbled along as she dragged me beside her with her much longer strides.

"Slow down, Rangiku, the sake will still be there in five minutes," I complained.

"There better be lots of sake left when I get there!" she cheered, louder than before. Had she already been drinking? Why did I even have to ask myself that?

All the way back to the Squad 10 barracks, I was swamped with questions about how I had learned to play an instrument so well. I was getting so much attention that I didn't know how to field all the questions. I had to resort to vague answers and head nods in order to even think about responding to the onslaught. Once we arrived at the barracks, we all headed for the courtyard. It had transformed since I had come through earlier. Tables were set out with food and drinks all around the edges of the courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard, more tables littered the area where people were sitting and having a good time with one another.

Rangiku led us over to a few of the empty tables and went to fetch a few jugs of sake for everyone. Several of the people that had walked back with us dispersed to other areas, for which I was extremely grateful. All those people had started becoming too much for me to handle. Folding my kimono neatly under my knees, I sat down across from Amagi and a few other members of our squad. Now that the group had gotten most of their questions out, they had stopped paying me as much attention as they had on the way here. I really was an introvert at heart.

When Rangiku returned, she slammed an entire bottle of sake down in front of me. I laughed and started to push it away.

"No way!" Rangiku denied as she put it right back in front of me. "You better finish that tonight! A reward for doing so good!" she ordered, handing me a sakazuki cup.

"I can't possibly finish this tonight," I objected. I wasn't exactly a lightweight, but that was an awfully big bottle.

"'Course you can! We have tomorrow off." She filled my cup to the brim with sake. "Now drink!"

I let out a sigh and quickly downed the liquid. Oh damn, this was the good stuff!

Two hours later, I had consumed about as much as I was willing to have in one night. It was well into the night and I was sporting a damn good buzz. Several people had already passed out, including Rangiku, who was in a competition for the most drool on the table with Amagi. I had managed to get away with only drinking about half of my bottle of sake, thank goodness. Rangiku was like a damn fish when she started drinking.

I leaned back against the table, having at some point in time turned around so I was facing the isle. My zanpakuto was probably losing her touch. She had been way more serious than she needed to be this afternoon. The only thing I had struggled with all day was trying to be social. Everyone had a good time, so I must have done something right. And Rangiku was with me all evening, so I had kept someone I trusted with me. I was good to go.

'Ria…'

Oh geez, why did I have to think of him right now? I was supposed to go talk to him, but he was probably already off in bed or something. Captain Hitsugaya never participated in our parties. It was like, against his code of awesomeness or whatever to drink. I was still crossing my fingers that one day, Rangiku would trick him into getting drunk. Aaahhh, that would be hilarious. I wonder if she would accept bribes… I laughed to myself at the thought. There was no way.

Letting out a sigh, I slowly rolled onto my feet. I wobbled for a bit, struggling to stand on my geta even though it should have been easy. With a huff, I kicked them off and slowly worked my way towards the offices. I had to step over several passed-out bodies on the way, which was interesting because I had to lift my skirts up to get over a few of them. I even fell over once, but I had landed on someone who was so gone that he just grunted. Which made me laugh for a long time.

When I eventually made it to the doors leading inside, I had lost one sock, but otherwise I was intact. I even still had my fan, though which sleeve it was in, I couldn't remember. Giggling to myself, I headed for the stairs. I treated each step like I was an inch worm and had to go up the steps backwards on my butt. Trying to hold my skirts and walk just sounded like it would be a disaster waiting to happen.

When I finally made it to the landing, I had to roll over and use the wall to stand. I may have had a bit more to drink than I thought… Oh well. Turning to go down the hallway, I stopped and gave a suspicious glance down each of my options. Was I on the third floor or the second? Did I need the third floor or the second?

"I can't remember!" I called out to no one. Laughing at myself, I turned back to the stairs and started inch-worming up to the next flight. Captains were the head honchos. Of course, he would be on the third floor. Why be in the middle, where you can hear people running around above you? My logic made absolute sense, I was sure.

Coming to my feet on the landing once more, I went straight down the hallway in front of me. I should have had it memorized, how to get to the Captain's office. I had to go there all the time to move paperwork around. It only made sense that I should follow my instincts. So what if I couldn't seem to remember where it was.

"Ah-ha!" I shouted at the door when I came across the Squad 10 crest on a set of double sliding doors. Pointing an arm at it dramatically, I quietly praised myself and my fantastic discovery.

"Huzzah!" Walking to the door, I knocked on it.

No answer.

I knocked again.

No answer.

I slid the door open and poked my head in sideways, trying to be stealthy. Oh, it was empty… So, he had gone off to bed! That probably meant that I should go to bed too, so nothing else could happen tonight.

Closing the Captain's office doors with a loud thwack, I made my way towards the stairs, inch worming the entire way down to the first floor. When I stood at the bottom, I had to brush my shoulder off like a total pro. Because I was awesome and didn't face plant. Yeah!

Leaving the offices, I headed for the part of the barracks that housed all the soldiers. It wasn't much of a walk, and thankfully there were no bodies to clamber over on the way there. Getting up the stairs here was much more of a challenge. Apparently, several people had tried and failed to make it back to their rooms, so I had to inch worm over them on my way up to my room. I was on the fourth floor which, with flash step, was normally not an issue. Tonight, however, that was four flights of passed out Soul Reapers I had to work around. It was supremely hilarious. I really hoped that I remembered tonight when morning came.

Finally making it up to the fourth floor, I staggered to my room, laughing and giggling the whole way. I slid the door to my room open and shuffled inside before closing it behind me. Musing at myself, I reached up to pull the kanzashi from my hair.

"Bakudo #61. Rikujokoro."

Beams of light slammed into my waist, freezing my body where I stood. I blinked at the wall I had been gazing at, not understanding what had just happened. I tried to move my arms that were raised up, one hand holding the kanzashi while the other hovered ready to catch it if I were to drop it. I couldn't do anything more than flex my muscles to no avail.

"Yamamoto," said a male voice that I didn't recognize from further into my room.

My breath caught in my throat as I started to understand what had happened. Someone had been waiting in my room for me. I didn't know the voice. It didn't even sound like someone from Squad 10. Whoever they were, they had used a kido above 60 without an incantation, or perhaps they had said it before I entered the room. I was loud enough to allow someone to prepare their strike.

Hot breath ghosted across the back of my neck. Fear spiked through my body, temporarily dimming the effects of the alcohol I had consumed. Trapped by the bakudo, I could barely breathe evenly, let alone talk. I felt a touch on my shoulder that dragged across my back to my other shoulder. Their touch moved over my shoulder as they came around to stand in front of me. A man who I didn't recognize looked me in the eye. His expression was sinister, a crocodile like smile baring his teeth.

"You really were too easy to catch," he said as his hand trailed up to my neck and caressed my jaw line. My eyes hardened into a glare as I met his grey gaze. His smile only widened.

"Do you have any idea why I am here?" His fingers trailed over my cheek, caressing it tenderly. "I don't suppose you do."

His hand pulled away, only for it to speed forward a moment later. The back of his hand connected with my cheek and my head jerked with the force of the hit, only to be stuck turned to the side because of his bakudo. He laughed, the sound grating like a cackle as blood coated my mouth in a coppery taste. I couldn't stop the blood as it trailed down my lip and neck to soak into the collar of my kimono. His hand grasped my face violently, turning my head so I was looking at him once more.

"You never should have left the Rukon District," he growled. "I am here to put you back in your place."

I gave him a growl of my own. It was the only thing I could do without moving. He laughed and stepped away from me and looked me up and down, a crazy glint in his eyes.

"Aw, you dressed up just for little ol' me." He reached out and ran a hand across my obi, trailing his fingers up and over my breasts. "I am going to ruin you. The Ise Clan won't want you after I'm done with you, nor will your little captain. They'll send you back to the cesspool you crawled out of."

The spike of fear that had been zinging through my body suddenly mixed with anger. I called on my spiritual energy, forcing it to grow inside me. I wouldn't be helpless, not now. If he had just used the bakudo without an incantation, I might be able to break it. I spent so much of my spiritual energy on using my shikai. When I didn't sink all my energy into my shikai though—

"It's amusing that you're trying to fight back," he sneered as his smile widened. In a flash, he was in my face, his hands slapping cold metal around my wrists. I gasped as the spiritual energy I had been gathering lashed back at me like a hot whip on my mind. What the hell had he just done?

"You are so much prettier without a spiritual pressure. Now, you have to be a good little girl." He smiled at me, his teeth fully bared. His mouth smashed into mine, his teeth grinding into my lips in a forceful kiss while his hand gripped my hair. I couldn't help but whimper as I felt my lips bruising and bleeding. He pulled back ever so slightly and licked my lips, then my chin. He pulled back and laughed again, his mouth red with my blood.

"You are weak. You don't deserve to be 3rd seat. I'm going to make you regret ever having become a Soul Reaper." He dropped the kanzashi I had in my hair on the floor, making sure I could watch him do it.

I tried to call my spiritual energy again, but it recoiled and slapped my mind once more. I focused on him and tried to think a way out of the situation, but he stepped out of my line of sight, forcing me to glare at the wall.

What could I do? I should have found the captain earlier instead of drinking with Rangiku. My zanpakuto had warned me. Why hadn't I taken her more seriously, or been more proactive in preventing this?

I felt the smaller bands of my obi give way as he yanked at the knots. He started humming a jolly tune as he worked at the rest of the knots and ties securing my obi. Tears burned in my eyes as I realized that there was nothing I could do. I was truly at this man's mercy, and I didn't think he had a merciful bone in his body. The pillows that padded my stomach and back fell away, and with them tears started falling from my eyes. Why hadn't I just found Captain Hitsugaya like I had promised I would?

The door to my room flew open and shards of ice shot through the air. I heard my assailant shout with surprise as metal clashed. I couldn't see what was happening, but I could feel movement behind me. Cold air shot past me, covering the wall in my room with a thick layer a blue tinted ice. I stared at it in shock. I couldn't feel him, his spiritual pressure was completely hidden from me, but more tears streamed down my face as I realized that he had come. I didn't know how, but he had.

"Die!" I heard my assailant shout.

I was suddenly surrounded by ice as an explosion shook the building. I didn't hear the blast, but its shockwave stole my breath away. An eerie silence overtook the room then. I could hear someone breathing lightly nearby, but with the bakudo holding me still, I couldn't turn. The ice surrounding me cracked and fell away. Footsteps approached me and finally, I saw Captain Hitsugaya's face as it came into my view. He tapped the light beams of the bakudo with his hand, but his expression darkened when it didn't fall away. Lifting his sword, he slashed the beams away and I fell with the release.

He caught me mid fall, taking us both to the ground. With his touch, I could suddenly feel him, feel his spiritual pressure as he cradled me in his arms. I held on to him as tears ran from my eyes, one arm wrapped around his waist while my other hand grasped at his shihakusho desperately. He was whispering into my hair, but I was so lost in relief that I didn't understand what he was saying.

It took me a long time to stop crying enough to actually think. All I wanted to do was hold him and be held. He had saved me. Again.

Shouts greeted my ears as members of the squad began to gather outside my room. I made myself as small as I could in his arms, not wanting to be seen in such a pathetic state. His spiritual pressure flared and the shouts ceased. I didn't care what he had done, but I pressed my face more firmly into him to better hide myself.

"How did you…?" I asked with my face still buried in the fabric of his shihakusho.

He seemed to realize that I wasn't out of my mind with tears anymore, and started rubbing circles into my back. "I felt your spiritual pressure just before it vanished."

I nodded stiffly. I felt him move and heard him sheath his zanpakuto as his spiritual pressure dulled. He shifted me, sliding his arm under my legs and lifting me off the ground. I wrapped my arm around his neck and kept my face hidden in his shoulder. The cold in the air vanished as he slipped out the door to my room. Whispers came from the squad members that I knew were still there. I felt the power in his muscles as he flash stepped once, then again, completely leaving the other people behind. He stopped long enough to slide a door open with his foot and spun around to close it. I felt him sit down, my weight shifting to no longer supported by his arms. I curled into him, making sure to keep my face hidden in his shihakusho.

"What happened?" He asked with a soft voice. I turned my head so I wasn't talking to into his chest and tried to put the words together in my head.

"He was in my room," I said, my voice sounding rough with tears.

"I was so drunk," I let my words trail off for a moment. "He used kido on me before I even knew what was going on."

He seemed to pause to think over his words. "Did you invite him in?"

"No," I scoffed. "He was waiting for me."

His hand ran down my hair, which I vaguely remembered falling out of its chignon when that man had so forcefully kissed me.

"Did he hurt you?" He asked. I lifted a hand to my lips, touching them gently to test how hurt they were.

"Just a little," I said as I looked at my fingertips. They were still coming away with fresh blood, but it was starting to clot.

"May I see?" His voice was so gentle. I didn't want to say no to him, but I didn't want him to see what that man had done to me.

"Ria, it's okay," he cooed, strengthening his grip around me. I hadn't noticed that I had started to shake. I took in a deep breath and tilted my head back so he could see my face. I kept my gaze trained at a spot on his shihakusho as he looked at me. I couldn't bear to see the rejection in his eyes. That man may not have ruined me, but I felt violated. I didn't want my captain to see someone like me, so weak and unable to even defend herself.

I saw his hand come up and I flinched, seeing the slap coming despite knowing I was imagining it. Green light enveloped his hand as he held his fingertips just above my cut and bruised lips. My eyes widened. I didn't know he could use kaido. My gaze flicked up to his and I was pinned by those aquamarine eyes. They were filled with such concern that I didn't deserve. Tears blurred my vision so I closed them, letting the tears slide down my cheeks.

"It's okay, Ria," he murmured, "I'm here. It's over."

"What if you didn't feel me?" I gasped out despite my trying to hold back my sobs. "What if no one knew?"

"I told you Ria, you are mine to protect. I will always be there." His hot breath caressed my forehead with his words before his lips pressed against my forehead in a feather-light kiss.

"I am not deserving," I whispered.

"Yes, you are," he said, his voice matching mine.

I looked up at him once more, meeting his gaze. "I meant to tell you what my zanpakuto had said, but I couldn't get to you at the Celebration Stage, and Rangiku-"

"It's alright," he assured me. The green light from his kaido dissipated and he lowered his hand to rest on my arm. I ran my tongue over my lips, checking to see how healed my lips were. Other than the old blood, it was like I had never been bleeding in the first place. He turned his attention down my body, pausing on my lips before his attention turned to the manacles on my wrists. His free hand grasped my right and lifted it. He shifted to get a better look at the manacles, pulling me tighter into his body.

"He used these to seal your spiritual pressure?" He asked.

"I think so," I replied, letting my fingers curl around his palm. The manacles were plain white metal that appeared to have no seam as he turned my hand over. "I thought I could break his bakudo with my spiritual energy, but he slapped these on my wrists and my reiatsu backlashed."

His grip slid down my hand until it was resting over the manacles. His gaze narrowed as he focused on the metal and I felt the temperature shift in the room. Ice formed under his hand, coating the manacle and my skin. His hand flexed around the ice he had made and I heard the metal crack under his palm. He released my wrist and the manacle fell into my lap in several chunks of ice. Instantly, something in my chest relaxed as I could feel the world around me again. His hand closed over my reddened wrist, the heat from his skin soothing the chill that his ice had caused.

"I need your other wrist," he murmured. I nodded and started to pull away from him. His hand left my freed wrist and went to my waist, holding me where I was. "You'll fall if you move like that."

I looked around then. I hadn't realized where he had taken us. We were sitting on a couch in a room that I had never been in before. It was sparsely decorated, but it clearly resembled a living room with the couches and coffee table on one side and the chabudai table across the room with cushions laid around it. The one wall in the room that wasn't made up for shoji doors had an elegantly painted bamboo tree dancing across the wood.

"Where are we?" I asked, my voice filled with wonder.

"My house at the barracks." He replied. "It is the only place I could guarantee privacy."

I nodded slowly. I was in his house, a place I had never been. I could see how privacy was guaranteed. The only other people that came in here were other captains and Rangiku. I turned back to him and avoided his gaze as I shifted away from his body so I could pull my arm between us and offer him the other manacle. I didn't want to leave his embrace, not yet. For once, I wanted to be selfish, so I let myself be. He froze the manacle off my wrist like he had done to the first one and I settled back against him. His arms surrounded me, holding me lightly to him.

"What happened to him?" I asked quietly.

"He's dead." Seeing the shock on my face, he elaborated, "He was caught in his own explosion. I contained him and the blast just before it went off. Hence why you didn't hear the explosion, but felt it."

"Oh." I relaxed back into him, my forehead resting against the side of his neck.

"Did he say why?"

"Yes," I said, swallowing down a sudden lump in my throat. I gripped his shihakusho in my hand, struggling to repeat that man's words. "I'm weak and don't deserve my rank or name. He wanted to ruin me."

My vision was overcome by the memory of his face so close to mine as he slapped the manacles around my wrists. His toothy grin before his mouth crashed into mine. I whimpered against his mouth as his teeth—

"Hey." Hitsugaya's voice pulled me from the memory. His grip around me was tight and tense as he said, "It's over, Ria. Stay here with me. He's dead. He can't hurt you again."

I curled my legs up and turned my body so I wasn't just lying in his arms, but pressed against him.

"I keep seeing it, experiencing it over and over again. The hollow, the blood, that man. It just won't go away." A shudder ran through my body as I fought the urge to start crying again.

"They can't hurt you anymore, Ria," he whispered into my hair. "I'm here, you are safe."

He held me as I began to cry again, overwhelmed by the multitude of emotions I had experienced that day. His arms were strong against my back, while his hand gently ran through my hair. I cried out all the fear and pain that I had been holding onto for days. I let it soak into his shihakusho as I held him desperately. He whispered into my hair as I cried, words that I knew were meant just for me but I couldn't understand. Eventually, I fell asleep in his arms. Cradled in the comforting warmth of him, I was able to relax like I hadn't been able to in years. I was safe, here, in his arms.


	6. She Who Reveals

Seer

She Who Reveals

I woke in the morning to bright streams of sunlight passing over my face. The sensation was unusual because I normally kept my shutters closed until mid-morning. I moved to cover my face with my arm and came across the odd sensation of silk sliding across my skin. I snuggled into my elbow, not understanding that something was out of the ordinary. I was still so tired. Drinking all that sake had been such a bad idea. It was a wonder that I even made it back to my room.

My room…

I wasn't in my room…

Slowly uncovering my eyes, I stared up at the foreign ceiling. The back of the couch I was lying across blocked part of my line of sight, but it just proved to remind me of just where I was. Last night slowly replayed in my mind, all the ugly details playing with such detail. But, it didn't bother me as much as I expected it to. The sense memories were still there. The pain, the feel of that man's hand connecting with my cheek, his teeth… Captain Hitsugaya catching me as I fell. His arms wrapped around me, holding me as I cried.

I let my arm fall from where it had been covering my face, and my hand bopped into something. I didn't need to look to feel my captain's spiritual pressure just beside me and know that my hand was resting on his arm. I didn't know how long he had been there. It didn't really matter though. He was here when I woke. Knowing that, a glowing warmth filled my chest. Lightly I grasped the fabric of his sleeve and held it, feeling comfort in the touch. I closed my eyes and let out a soft sigh.

A hand closed over mine, squeezing my hand lightly. I smiled to myself at his touch. His hand was warm against mine, something that I had never really expected from him. Even after handling that ice last night his touch had been warm. I relaxed my grip on his sleeve, but didn't pull my hand away from his. His fingers wrapped around my palm and held my hand against his arm.

We didn't say anything for a long moment. I spent the time committing to memory what if felt like for him to hold my hand like he was. His skin so warm, his grip firm but gentle… If we never touched again I wanted to remember this feeling.

"How are you feeling?" He said, breaking the silence.

I rolled over onto my side, making sure to leave my hand where it was. For the first time this morning I looked at him. He was sitting with his back propped against the seat of the sofa, his body about at my hips. He was still dressed in just his shihakusho, the stiffness of the fabric over his chest telling me he hadn't changed after I fell asleep. His gaze was concentrated on the coffee table, giving me the perfect view of his profile as I curled my body so my head was resting on the edge of the seat cushion.

"Tired, but okay." I answered him. "Have you been here all night?"

"Mostly," he replied. "Your nightmares seemed to go away when I stayed near."

A blush tinted my cheeks, knowing he had stayed to make sure I slept. I really had to be such a bother to him. I started to pull my hand from his so I could sit up, but his grasp tightened. His gaze turned to me then, his aquamarine eyes meeting my own. His expression was soft and caring, something I was starting to not be surprised by when I saw it on his face. His eyes told me that he had stayed because he wanted to, not because it was just something he should have done.

"Thank you," I murmured.

He nodded and turned his gaze back to the coffee table. "Your room was wrecked after last night. I didn't think you should go back there today, so I retrieved your zanpakuto for you."

I followed his gaze to the coffee table and saw my zanpakuto laying across the table next to his Hyorinmaru. She seemed so much smaller than Hyorinmaru, her blade only about three-quarters of the length of his. Her hilt gleamed in the light, like she was happy to be where she was. Most of the time she was dull and looked unpolished, but at this moment the silvers and golds in her metal work looked like they had just been forged. Was she showing off, or had something changed?

"I can just fix my room, you know," I commented as I stared at my zanpakuto.

"You can do it tomorrow then," he countered, looking back at me. "I don't want you being that far away from me today."

The blush I was already sporting darkened at his words and I quickly looked away to hide it. "A-Alright."

His hand left mine and I felt him move. His fingers caressed my cheek and gently coaxed me to look up to him. He had turned his body so his side was pressed to the couch cushions, his elbow resting on the seat beside my body. When he turned, he had pressed closer to my upper body so as he cradled my cheek he was almost looming over me. Looking up at him I met his steady gaze.

"Someone is after you Ria," his tone was serious as he spoke. "I don't think that man last night was the one who was pulling the strings. Because of that, I am not letting you go back into harm's way. Not if I can prevent it."

"I just don't understand why," I started to say. Pulling the hand I had left on his arm back, I propped myself up on my elbow so I was almost at his eye level. His hand had fallen from my cheek when I moved, leaving my skin feeling tingly where he had touched. "I personally feel that I don't deserve the 3rd seat in the squad because of how weak I am compared to Amagi and the other seated officers. That part of what he said last night made sense to me. But, that part about the Ise Clan and about you…" I had to let my words trail off. I couldn't remember exactly what I had said last night.

The look in his eyes didn't change, but his expression became slightly curious. I looked down at my hand where it was resting on the edge of the couch cushion. The elbow that he had rested on the couch was almost touching my hip, his hand only a few inches from my own.

"He said that not even the Ise Clan would want me after he was done with me," I said, my voice shaking ever so slightly. "A-and nor would you."

"Stop that," he said abruptly.

"Stop what?" I said looking up to him with surprise.

"Stop believing what he said," his expression was annoyed. "Do you really think that Nanao would reject you just because you were assaulted?" He leaned in closer to me, his eyes narrowed. "Do you think that I would reject you?"

I…

I didn't know what to say.

Up until last night I would have been convinced that I was just his subordinate. I had thought that I had feelings towards him just because he was… well, because he was him. But the way he held me last night, how he had always known what to say to calm me down, how he had kissed my forehead…

"No," I whispered. His hand slid behind my neck and pulled me towards him. I closed my eyes as his forehead pressed to mine, the tips of our noses barely touching.

"Good," he said, his breath ghosting across my lips.

"Captain!" Rangiku's voice said from outside, her fist pounding on the door frame.

His hand tightened on the back of my neck as he let out a string of grumbled curses. I opened my eyes as he pulled away slightly. He was only inches away now, his gaze intent on mine. "I meant it when I said that you were mine, Ria. Mine to protect."

I gave him a small nod. He stared down at me for a moment longer before he withdrew his hand and stood. I watched him as he passed through one of the open doors in the room before he closed it behind him.

"I can hear you in there Captain," Rangiku accused as she pounded on a door again.

"Shut it will you. I'm coming," his voice was back to the terminally annoyed sound that he seemed to typically use with her.

I shook my head and worked my way up to standing. If Rangiku came in here I needed to make sure I was presentable. After last night's incident, I had no idea what state my kimono was in other than it still on my body. One of the first things I did notice was the distinct lack of a sock on my right foot. When had that happened?

"Captain, I can't find Ria anywhere." Rangiku confessed. "I went to go check on her, but her room had been trashed!"

"It's because you went and drank yourself stupid last night, isn't it?" He asked, sounding pissed.

"It was a celebration last night! You can't blame me for drinking when we have today off!" She whined back.

Looking down, I decided it wasn't too bad. Both my obi age and my obi jime were gone making my actual obi feel loose like it was ready to start unraveling. The collar of my kimono had slid apart by a few inches, revealing more of my chest than it was supposed to so I slid it back into place and adjusted the shoulders. I reached behind me, feeling for the ends of the obi. It was still tied in the back, but the ends had fallen out of the otaiko when the pillow had been removed. I would have to ask Captain Hitsugaya to tighten the knot when he came back, or it would eventually fall off and I would be left only with the ties underneath.

I walked over to the coffee table and picked up my zanpakuto. Unsheathing her I used my reflection in her blade to look at my face. I was relieved to see that during my fits of tears all my makeup had come off my face leaving it mostly blank instead of streaked with black lines. I touched my lips, remembering the pain from the night before. Other than the faint stain of color from my lipstick making them look extra pink, they looked like nothing had happened.

"But I'm really worried about Ria, Captain!" Rangiku said changing the subject from her drinking habits. "Her room was trashed! Not a 'I got drunk and knocked some things over', trashed. This was fighting aftermath trashed!"

"She's fine," he said flatly.

There was a pause in their conversation.

"Some of the squad members said that you had carried her off. She was just as drunk as I was last night you know! If you took advantage of her-"

"Rangiku," he growled. "What the hell makes you think I would do that?"

Her voice lowered into the tone she used to tease him with as she said, "I saw the way you looked at her at her last night, Captain."

I slid my zanpakuto back into her sheath and set her back on the coffee table next to Hyorinmaru. It still amazed me how Rangiku was able to get under his skin after all these years. I made my way over to the door that he had vanished through and opened it. It led into a hallway that seemed to lead to the front door. Apparently, he had stepped out onto the deck with Rangiku.

"Are you still drunk?" He asked her, clearly rejecting what she had said.

"No!" She denied. "Well, maybe a little." She then corrected herself. "The best way to cure a hangover is to drink more."

He let out an exasperated sigh.

I quietly stuck my head around the door frame to see them standing facing each other. Rangiku was still in her kimono from the night before but she had let her hair down. There was a light pink tint to her cheeks clearly displaying just how buzzed she still was. Her eyes flicked over to me and her face lit up with relief.

"There you are!" She half shouted as she stepped towards me. I didn't try to dodge her a she pulled me into hug. She didn't try smothering me with her boobs this time, so I didn't fight it. "Are you okay? You look," She pulled back, looking down at me. "Actually, you look better than normal."

"I'm fine Rangiku," I assured her.

"Rangiku, can you go get a shihakusho for Ria to borrow."

Rangiku looked from me to Captain Hitsugaya and back a few times. "Sure, I don't mind," her voice had gotten serious with her words.

"Thank you," I said while bowing my head slightly in her direction.

"Is everything okay?" She asked.

"We will explain when you get back," he replied.

"Alright," she said before turning to walk out. I watched as she stepped off the porch and walked across the grass towards her own home across the area. Captain Hitsugaya passed in front of me interrupting my view of her. He pulled the door closed behind him and walked behind me as he returned to the room we had been in. I followed him, walking quietly.

He was at the coffee table, reaching for Hyorinmaru when I passed the door frame. His hand had hesitated over his zanpakuto though, like he was caught mid thought. I stood and waited for him to do something. He turned his head to me, his eyes full of his thoughts.

"You said that your Zanpakuto had given you a name yesterday. Why did she start again?"

"She didn't say." I replied quietly.

His gaze shifted back to the coffee table. "You should ask her."

I let my gaze trail down to rest on my zanpakuto. Every time I asked her a question, she either gave me some smart ass reply or disappeared. She truly thought I was an idiot. But, she seemed to answer questions for him…

I started to walk towards the table to unsheathe her, but he stepped between me and the table. His hand lifted and he tapped his temple, "Ask her in here."

"She won't-"

"If you assume she won't," he interrupted me. "Then she won't. Have more faith and listen for her. Soul Reapers and their Zanpakuto are two parts of the same soul. Trust your other half."

I pursed my lips, wanting to argue with him but forcing myself not to. He had been a captain longer than I had even been a soul reaper and from my understanding he had been able to hear his zanpakuto since he was just a little kid. Arguing with him about mine was just stupid.

Letting out a sigh I stepped to the side so I could look at my zanpakuto. I needed to focus my thoughts at her, and listen. That's all I had to do. She was listening when I thought the most random things, so why wouldn't she hear me now?

"You're really dense, ya know?" my zanpakuto's voice said from the other side of the room. I startled and turned faster than a freaked-out cat.

She was sitting at the chabudai table on the other side of the room. Her teal eyes were visible under her gold and silver mask today, her mouth also visible beneath the sculpted metal. She watched us with half lidded eyes, a smug smirk turning her lips. Her hair was up in an elegant shimada with gold and silver ornaments laced through her hair. I couldn't see the rest of her because the other couch was blocking my view, but it looked like her shoulders were… bare?

"I am not dense," I defended. "You are just stubborn!"

"Ria," Captain Hitsugaya interrupted me. "In your head."

"But she's right there," I said pointing around him at my zanpakuto. "Why do I need to talk to her in my head when she's manifested?"

His eyes followed my pointing finger and he stared at my zanpakuto for a moment. His gaze traveled back to me, one eye brow lifted in an amused expression. "I can't see her." He said.

I blinked and glanced back to my zanpakuto. "He can't?"

"I don't think you want him to see me like this," She said, her voice sounding sly.

"Don't tell me," I started to say. "Are you-"

"Ria," Captain Hitsugaya said, interrupting me. "In your head."

I bit my lip in annoyance, but did as he said.

'Are you naked?' I asked her.

Her smile widened. "It's your fault," she teased.

'How in the hell is it my fault that you're naked?'

"It's your name today. Haven't you noticed how my appearance changes with your names?"

My cheeks flushed scarlet. 'My freaking name is She Who Gets Naked? What kind of name is that?' I shot back at her.

"She Who Reveals," she mused. "I like the freedom," She said as she stood.

I couldn't help but gape at her. She was completely nude. One-hundred percent wearing no clothing and posing like it was the best thing ever.

"I can't believe you," I said out loud as I slapped my hand over my eyes.

"Should I make myself visible?" She asked in a completely innocent voice.

"No!"

"Ria," Captain Hitsugaya's voice said quietly.

"Sorry," I quickly apologized.

"Work with her, don't get irritated," his voice was in my ear. I uncovered my eyes to see he had moved around stand behind me. I met his gaze for a moment before turning back to my zanpakuto. He was right, getting mad wasn't how to work with her. But, he couldn't see her and her clear lack of decency.

"Go ahead, ask your questions," She said as she walked around the couch and sat. At least she had the decency to keep her damn legs closed. "If you're nice enough I might actually answer."

Geeze, all I had to do was be nice… yeah right. 'You already know what I want to know. Why don't you just tell me?'

Her mouth set in a serious line as she watched me. She crossed her legs and her arms over her chest and let out a sigh. "Ask."

I bit my lip. Where did I even start? I had so many questions that I had never asked her. But… 'Why did you stop talking to me?'

"Your names do not change. Some are more prominent than others, but they do not change. One week ago, your name changed only minutes before the event was to occur. This breaks the rules. Fate changes, but it does not change like that. It takes days or even weeks for events to create a new future unless the event is so startling that it upsets things. But, even an event such as that is written as a turning point in your fate." She lifted a hand as she continued explaining, using her fingers to tick of events. "A turning point in your fate was when you were attacked by that hollow one week ago. If you had been a coward and not accepted the mission, you would have been safe but lost respect and faded as a person. If you had asked for help, you would have bled and nothing would have changed in your life. But, you chose to go to the Human World alone. It should have killed you, but you left a note behind. This was the turning point in your fate."

'That doesn't explain why you stopped talking to me,' I thought quietly. This was the most that she had ever explained her power to me, so I didn't want to push her into silence. But, I wanted to know.

"I was waiting to see if your fate would change again," She said simply. "Your names were not important ones, so I didn't bother telling you. If knowing your name influenced your fate, I was going to stop telling you what your name was. But, your fate hasn't changed since then. Your fate last night was only days in the making, but it didn't break the rules. No matter the scenario that was possible, you were still caught off guard. So, I decided to tell you your name once more, to see if you were changing your own fate."

'And I'm guessing that I didn't?'

"No."

'Do you know why my fate changed last week?'

Her eyes narrowed as she shifted her gaze down to the coffee table. "I am a zanpakuto. As far I am aware, the only possible force that could change my predictions is another zanpakuto."

"So, another soul reaper?" I asked out loud with surprise.

"Or an Arrancar, but I cannot foresee interactions between you and an Arrancar in your near future."

'Why do you keep giving me these names instead of telling me what is actually going to happen?'

She laughed at me. "If I told you, 'Hey Soul Reaper, you're going to get attacked by some guy in your room and he might rape you.' do you think you would have ever taken that option?"

'Of course not.'

"This is why I give you names. I will not provide you the tools to avoid your own fate. You haven't earned that privilege."

I blinked at her. Earned that privilege… 'You mean that I will be able to one day?'

Her gaze turned into a glare. "When you are mature enough not to abuse it."

She stood and briskly walked over to me. I took several steps back as she came into my personal space, but I ran into Captain Hitsugaya and had to stop. She came up to me, her face looming close to mine. "My name is…" her voice just faded out as I watched her lips move. "Learn to use my power correctly, little soul reaper." I was frozen with shock when she vanished.

"W-wait," I whispered. What had she said? I reached out to where she had been.

"Ria?"

"I couldn't hear her," I said quietly. "She said her name and I couldn't hear it."

"Has she ever-"

"No, that was the first time she ever said it. Ever."

He reached around me and covered my out stretched hand with his own, pulling it back to press against my obi. "Do you know why?"

I looked down at his hand where it still covered my own. The familiar way he touched me made my heart race. Part of me was still shy to the idea that he could be so close to me. If the elders ever found out that I had stayed the night in a man's house… I pushed the thought away and turned my gaze to my zanpakuto. "To earn the privilege of using her power."

I explained to him what my zanpakuto had said in brief detail. Just as I was getting to the part about another zanpakuto being able to effect mine he removed his hand from over my own and moved from where he had been standing at my back.

"Rangiku is back," he said quietly when I turned to look up to him.

I hummed in understanding. I had requested last week that he not tell her what was happening during our training, but after last night… My zanpakuto had said that no matter what happened I would have still been trapped by that man. But, if Rangiku had known that something could have happened last night maybe she would have been with me. Or maybe she would have still been three sheets to the wind.

"Ria," She said as she walked into the room. She hadn't even bothered to knock at the front door. "Aw, and here I was hoping to find you two in some sort of compromising position."

My face ignited with a fierce blush that I turned away to hide. My first instinct was to deny it, but that would just lead to Rangiku teasing me even worse. It was then that the knot in my obi decided to give way and I had to quickly catch it before it slipped from my waist. What perfect timing…

Endless amounts of teasing later and I was finally changed into the shihakusho that Rangiku had brought over. Getting out of my kimono was easy when the hard to reach ties had been removed the previous night. I had changed in Captain Hitsugaya's room which made the whole affair a bit awkward. He didn't bother maintaining a spare bedroom, so I could change in his bedroom or his office that had a very, very big window. I choose the bedroom for obvious reasons. I tried my best while I was in there to not look around. It felt like I was invading his privacy by being in here, so I had done my best to stay focused on changing as quickly as I could.

I was kneeling on the floor folding my kimono when a knock at the door drew my attention.

"Do you need any help?" Rangiku asked.

"No, I'm fine." I said quickly. "Though I really don't know how you manage to fit in this size top."

The pants were a bit long for my legs, but that was to be expected with our height difference. She was a good four or five inches taller than me. Then there was the top… I had known that she wore her shihakusho top a few sizes to small, but I hadn't realized just how small they were. My breasts weren't nearly as big as hers, but even I had a hard time keeping the edges of my shihakusho together with the top she had provided. It was ridiculous. I was showing just as much cleavage as some humans did with their deep v-neck shirts.

"I fit perfectly fine," She said with pride. I could just imagine her looking down at her large assets as she spoke.

I shook my head as I finished folding the kimono and started on the obi. I needed to return them to my sister eventually. Technically the kimono was mine, but keeping such a formal kimono here in the barracks had never been an ideal situation for me.

"I went and got a box for your kimono. I figured you wouldn't be able to properly store it until you room is put back together."

I perked up at her words. "Thank you, please come in. I'm decent."

Rangiku slid the door open and walked over to me. She had a long and thin woven box under her arm that she set beside my folded kimono. "Wow, you know how to fold these without the box." She said as she slipped the top off the box and placed the kimono inside. The fabric fit perfectly inside the box.

I smiled at her. "You learn a lot of things growing up inside the Seireitei."

"So I see," she replied. I handed her the obi as I finished folding it and she placed it in the box. "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

I lifted my gaze to see her looking at me with a serious expression. I let out a breath I had held for a moment and played with the remaining ties I had to still put in the box. "I was assaulted last night when I got back to my room." I said quietly.

"Who was it?"

"I don't know," I replied. "When Captain Hitsugaya fought him, he tried to light an explosion in the middle of the barracks. He died when the captain contained his blast around him."

Rangiku reached out to me and rested her hand on my wrist. "Did he do anything to you?"

I started to reach up to touch my lips but stopped. I didn't need to be recalling the memories right now. "No, he just scared the bejesus out of me and untied a few parts of my obi."

She pulled her hand back but kept her eyes on me. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone. I didn't know-"

"Its fine. How could you have known? My zanpakuto warned me, but I didn't say anything so it's really my own fault."

I reached over and placed the ties in the box. She didn't say anything as she slid the top back over the box, but her eyes watched me. I gave her a small smile and stood. She followed me and came to her feet.

"Ria, I know the captain is looking out for you, but you should know that I am here for you as well." She said. "I can tell that you two are growing close, but please don't hesitate to come to me if you need something."

"Thank you Rangiku," I said with a small bow of my head.

She nodded and picked up the box with my kimono in it. "I'll keep this at my house until you get your room situated again." She headed for the door to the room, but paused on her way out. "And you know, if you're trying to catch the Captain's eye you should wear my clothes more often," She winked at me and darted out the door.

I glanced down to see that my shihakusho had fallen open exposing most of my upper chest. I quickly grabbed the fabric and held it closed. This was going to get really annoying.

Leaving the captain's bedroom, I entered back into the living room and looked around. The room was empty which led me to wonder where the captain had gone. I opened myself to feeling his spiritual pressure and wandered off to the other side of his house. Sliding open a door I was greeted with the back porch. I spotted Captain Hitsugaya sitting a little ways down on the edge of the porch, much like he had been when he was at the Squad 4 barracks. It occurred to me that he had been there waiting for me to wake up, just like he had been today…

I made my way over to him and took a seat on the edge of the porch at his side. My legs weren't quite long enough to reach the ground so I let my feet swing. The back of his house looked out on a small pond and several plum trees that sat on its edge. It was a nice view, something that a person could sit and stare at for hours.

I heard him shift beside me, but I kept my gaze on the pond. "What else were you going to say before Rangiku returned?"

I recalled back to our conversation, trying to figure out where I had left off. "She said that only another zanpakuto could mess with her power." I let him mull over that for a minute before I continued. "She also said that she didn't see any arrancars in my near future."

It didn't take him long to put two and two together. "Is there anyone in the soul society that has a grudge against you?"

"Not that I can think of," I said quietly. "Yamamoto is a common name where I came from, but it is the same last name as the former head captain, and as far as I know I'm the only soul reaper with the last name now. People often assume that I was related to him somehow, but I'm pretty sure I'm not." I paused and thought over my words for a moment. "I'm part of the Ise Clan, but not really. So, I don't know why anyone would target me for that reason." I couldn't help but to squirm as I thought over the words that guy had said to me.

"Hey," he said as he leaned closer to me.

"I'm fine," I said quickly. "I just get the sense memory..." Even as I was talking I could hear his joyous humming as he pulled at the knots of my obi. I shook my head, trying to get the sound to stop.

"Come on," he said standing up. I looked up to him with a quirked eyebrow.

"What?" I asked as I started to get up.

"You need a distraction," he said, offering me his hand. I took it with only a little hesitation.

"What sort of distraction?" I asked as he pulled me to my feet.

"You'll see."

A twenty minutes later Captain Hitsugaya lead me through the doors into the indoor training area that our squad maintained. I had only been in here a few times, mostly to fix the damage from random training mishaps. What we were doing here, I couldn't even begin to guess. The squad members that came here were here to practice zanjutsu, their sword art. I hadn't bothered practicing it since I was able to use my shikai… So like, five years ago. Wow, when I thought of it like that it had been a really long time since I had practiced my sword skills at all.

Watching Captain Hitsugaya walk over to a rack of wooden practice swords a sense of nervousness overtook me. He was a master swordsmen. Even if I had maintained my skills over the years I would barely be an expert swordsman. He could kick my ass any day of the week and not break a sweat doing it.

"Um, sir," I started to say. I hesitated when he removed Hyorinmaru from his back and placed it against the wall beside the rack. He grabbed two of the wooden swords off the rack and turned to me, tossing one to me. I caught it and looked down at it like it was a foreign object.

"Put your zanpakuto over there," he said as he gestured towards where he had put his. Reluctantly I did as he said and set my zanpakuto beside his. I eyed the practice sword in my hand as I turned to face him.

"I should warn you," I said as I moved out into the middle of the floor where he had moved off to. "I haven't practiced in a long time."

"You have to hold your zanpakuto when you are using your shikai, right?" He asked as he took a basic stance. Standing there in the middle of the room he seemed like an impossible opponent. He had donned his captain's haori before leading me here, which made him look even more intimidating.

"It has to touch my body in some way, yes. Whether I stab myself or hold it in my hand is irrelevant." I nodded.

He gave me an odd look.

"The first time I activated my shikai I had been fooling around and stabbed myself in my thigh," I said shamelessly. "Total accident, I swear." Rukia still gave me a hard time about it when the subject came up…

"I wasn't told that when you transferred into the squad." He shook his head. "Either way, you have to stay in contact with your zanpakuto to maintain shikai." He shifted his stance, suddenly looking aggressive.

"Yeah," I said slowly as I took hold of my practice sword properly.

"Then what do you suppose your greatest weakness is?"

Oh boy, I knew where this was going. "Getting disarmed."

He came at me, closing the distance between us in a second. I blocked his first swing with pure luck, but I wasn't ready for just how hard he was going to hit and ended up stumbling off to the side. Recovering I resumed my stance and took his next hit like a champ, falling to one knee under the force of his downward swing but managing to keep from completely falling. Mercilessly he swung again, catching my sword before I could recover. It flew from my hands and clattered across the floor on the other side of the room. My palms throbbed slightly from the force of the hilt being torn from my hands despite my desperate grip on it.

"Wow," I breathed out. I knew he was strong, but I had never actually seen him fight without using his Hyorinmaru. Being on the receiving end of his strength would have been terrifying if he had meant to actually hurt me. He lowered his sword to his side and offered me his hand which I graciously took.

"Keep me from disarming you, and we will stop," he said before stepping to the side to allow me to retrieve my sword.

"We're gonna be here a while," I said laughing to myself as I walked over and picked up the wooden sword.

"The way your zanpakuto's hilt is formed, if you get disarmed it could end up breaking your hand on top of breaking your shikai," he said as he resumed his stance.

I glanced over to my zanpakuto against the wall and understood what he was saying. My zanpakuto's hilt was built a lot like a fencing sword, the hand guard wrapping over my hand and connecting to the bottom of the hilt in several elegant arcs. If I was disarmed and the blade decided to spin it could easily break my fingers.

I turned towards him and sank into my rusty stance. This was gonna hurt…

For the next two hours, I tried and failed to fend off his attacks. It felt like I was a house cat trying to fend off a lion. The most blows I managed to hold onto my sword for was six, but that was before my grip started to tire. I was surprised the swords weren't breaking with the power of his attacks. It was absolutely exhausting, but it made me realize just how weak I was with my swordsmanship.

"Getting tired?" he asked me as I picked up my sword for the hundredth time.

"Only if you are," I huffed as I twirled my wrist and turned back to him. We took our stances and I watched him for a moment. Maybe if I tried something different I'd actually get somewhere…

He came at me, using the same movements that he had started out with every time. I knew he was being predictable to give me a chance at not getting disarmed. I jumped back, dodging his first strike. I raised my sword above my head, preparing for a downward strike instead of moving to block his second swing. He moved faster than I could react and was blocking my swing before I could bring it down. His face was so close to mine as he held me off.

Fear paralyzed me so suddenly that I didn't know what happened. One second I was in the training room, the next I was back in my bed room and frozen by the Bakudo. My spiritual energy slapped me hard enough to steal my breath away. My assailant was holding the manacles around my wrists, his sinister smile eating away at me. The heat from training for hours was instantly gone, replaced by the cold sweat of fear. I felt the sword I knew I had been holding fall down my back, but the sensation was barely noticed. All I could do was stare into that grey, crazy eyed stare.

"Ria, come back me." The words coming from his mouth weren't right. I knew they were my captain's, but I couldn't comprehend why. Tears trailed from my eyes as I tried to fight against the Bakudo. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. And he was… he was going to…

"Ria!"

His mouth smashed into mine. I knew my lips should have hurt from the force of his kiss, I should have tasted blood as his teeth cut into me… but instead it was soft and gentle. Instead of coppery blood I tasted the crisp cool of the mountains in the winter. Even the hand that should have been pulling my hair as he gripped the back of my head was gentle but firm. What I was experiencing in my head versus what I was feeling were at odds. I fought with what I was seeing, trying to push it back and fight my way towards what I should have known was really happening.

I closed my eyes, forcing what I was seeing to go away. Slowly I could move again, my arms shaking as I brought then down from over my head. Even with my eyes closed I could feel my captain's body in front of me. Only his lips and hand were touching me, but I could feel the tension in his touch. Shakily I pulled away from him and he let me go. We stood only inches from each other. I couldn't stop my breath from coming out in heavy pants as I worked on recovering from my flashback. I didn't let myself meet his gaze. He had kissed me, completely replaced the memory of pain in my head. Part of me wanted to fall into his arms and kiss him again while another part was hesitant, not believing what had happened.

"I'm sorry," he said abruptly. "I shouldn't have done that."

My eyes widened as I stared down at the floor. I couldn't seem to blurt out what I was thinking. I had to say something. "Why did you…?"

"He forced himself on you," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have done the same thing."

I hadn't thought of it that way… I looked up to him, the expression on my face making his own fall blank. "Why did you kiss me?"

"To break you free of the flashback," He answered. "Your spiritual pressure spiked and vanished just now. I had an idea of where you went."

"Is that… the only reason?" I asked, having to pause to swallow down a lump in my throat.

"Yes."

His answer was so curt. No hesitation. No feeling behind it. Damn it, I was stupid to have fallen for him so easily. He didn't feel anything for me other than his duty. I shouldn't have read so much into the way he had cared for me.

He walked away from me towards the rack of wooden swords. I watched his back as he moved, wondering why on earth I had thought he would feel the same as I did. I was just someone he wanted to protect. Why had I thought it was more?

I followed him, picking up my dropped practice sword on the way and returning it to the rack. I gave him a little space as he picked up his Hyorinmaru and returned it to its spot across his back.

"Let's return. You should take it easy for a while," he said heading for the exit.

I nodded and retrieved my zanpakuto. Securing her at my hip I followed Captain Hitsugaya's path to the door. My thoughts were everywhere as we exited the building. It had grown overcast while we had been inside. The sky was completely blotted out by clouds while darker storm clouds were slowly crowding in from the east. It was going to rain soon…

I followed a short distance behind him, avoiding any conversation that would happen between us. I needed to let it go, to just forget whatever I had felt towards him. But… How do you forget someone like that? I just couldn't…

"Sir?" I asked quietly, stopping my progress.

He stopped and turned to look at me. "What's wrong?" He asked, seeing my expression.

'You are mine to protect,' his words rang in my head.

I shook my head, forcing the memory back. I needed to get this off my chest.

"What am I to you?" I asked him point blank.

He got this weird look on his face, like he didn't know what I was asking. "You're my subordinate."

"Is that really it?" I blurted out.

He hesitated before he nodded. "Yes."

My chest tightened with his words and I looked to the floor. This was a mistake, but I had to tell him. I couldn't take it. "You're more than just my captain. You became more than that the day you were there when I thought I was going to die. I thought I had become something more to you since then. Whenever I needed someone, you were there. When I didn't need you, you were still there. I'm sorry for misreading our interactions, but that kiss meant something to me even if it meant nothing to you. And when you held me last night as I cried…"

I looked up to him for a moment before bowing my head, "I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble."

I flash stepped away. I had to run or I wouldn't have been able to keep it together. I wanted to just vanish for a while. Wait for him to forget how silly I had been and for our interactions to become what they were. I would be fine if I didn't have to be reminded of how I had fallen for him when he didn't feel the same. Maybe it would just be easier if my sister found me an arranged marriage after all. Then my heart wouldn't ache like this.

When I finally stopped running I was somewhere in the Seireitei. I hadn't really been paying attention. There was no where I could hide from him, but his indifference… surely, he would just let me be for a while. I looked down the long and empty corridor and let out a long sigh. If I could just sort out my thoughts and cool my head I would be fine.

I looked down at myself and laughed lightly. Apparently Rangiku's suggestion that I wear more of her clothes hadn't worked. On her it ended up being a plunging neckline, on me it ended up being a very deep V neck. I quickly pulled the edges together, doing my best to make the fabric stay together. It would hold so long as I didn't do anything strenuous, like practice swordsmanship. I was just a subordinate…

I felt Captain Hitsugaya appear behind me. I spun around and took a few steps back. His expression was annoyed, something that I hadn't been expecting. Indifferent, bored, amused… but not annoyed.

"C-Captain," I stuttered out. I wasn't ready for this. Why did he follow me? How was I supposed to react to him? "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all that. It just puts you in an awkward position and I didn't intend to do that to you. I won't bring it up again-"

He stepped towards me, his steps confident and sure. I took another step back, unsure of what he was doing. Was he going to yell at me? Had I done something else wrong?

"You really are a handful," He said, his voice filled with such annoyance. He stepped to me and his hands caught my hips. I squeaked as he lifted my feet off the ground and held me up in the air for a moment, his eyes watching my face. He threw me over his shoulder after a moment, his arm wrapping around the backs of my legs to secure me.

"What are you doing?" I squeaked out as he turned around and started walking.

"I don't like talking out in the open," He commented just before he took off in a flash step. I curled against his back, hiding my face in my arms and holding my loose hair still as he moved. Goddamn he was fast. I never felt his speed when he carried me in his arms. But this was just insane. It was like being attached to a damn hummingbird jacked up on caffeine as it zipped around.

When he finally stopped, I had to let out a sigh of relief. Looking around I recognized the pond and plum trees that had been on the back of the captain's house. The clouds had gotten darker, making it seem like it was on the verge of night time. He wanted to talk, but why did he have to take me back here? I felt his hands grasp my hips just before he knelt forward and deposited me on my feet. He stood back up, but his hands remained on my hips, pinning me in place.

"You're not going to try and run away again, are you?" He asked, his voice sounding irritated.

I avoided his gaze as I shook my head. Wasn't like running was going to do me any good when he was so stupid fast…

"Good," he released my hips and rested a hand on his waist. His posture said everything. I was in for a lecture, or maybe I was even going to get yelled at. It was a similar pose he had used when we were out in the forest with the other soul reapers before he had sent them away.

I shrank into myself, preparing for the emotional hits I knew I was about to take.

"If you had been more open with me, I never would have answered your questions earlier the way that I did," He chided. "You are always so formal," He let out a frustrated sigh. "I'll bet you even think of me as Captain, don't you?"

Slowly I looked up at him, avoiding his gaze by looking at his mouth as he spoke. "Of course, it would be inappropriate to think of you any other way." I shifted from one foot to the other as I spoke. "It's inappropriate for me to have any feelings towards you because you are my captain and I am your subordinate. But… I misread our interactions. I'm sorry."

"Your zanpakuto may have been right about how clueless you can be," he commented with a shake of his head.

"Hey," I argued back, forgetting myself. "She's the one who is cryptic and unhelpful."

"Why can't you be like that more often?" He asked.

I hesitated. "Cryptic and unhelpful?"

"Open," he corrected. He reached out to me, cupping my face in his hands and forcing my eyes to meet his. I started to back up and pull away, but my back ran into one of the pillars supporting the porch. Had he put me here on purpose? Had he known that I would try to run?

"C-Captain," I started to say as I moved to shift around the pillar. His hands held me where I was though, his eyes demanding all of my attention.

"When it's just you and me, its Toshiro." He stepped into me, pressing my body against the pillar. "Not Captain." His mouth was hovering just over mine, teasing me with the caress of his hot breath.

"Captain I-"

"Toshiro," he interrupted. I started to call him captain again, but hesitated.

"Toshiro," I repeated him slowly. His mouth covered mine in a searing kiss. I lost any sense of myself as I was consumed by the feel of his lips on mine, the taste that was uniquely him. I couldn't even kiss him back for a moment because of how overwhelmed I was by his advance. When I finally realized that this, this kiss, was really happening I opened my mouth to him. Knotting my hands in his haori I pulled him closer to me, offering him full control of our kiss. He slipped one hand into my hair while his other slipped behind me and pulled me higher, forcing me to the tips of my toes and arching my back so the front of my body pressed tightly into his.

We kissed until I was gasping for breath against his mouth and shaking with the effort of standing on my tip toes. He let me rest back on the heels of my feet as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. In turn I nuzzled my nose into his chest as my gasps turned to pants.

Rain started to sprinkle us as we stood holding each other. He didn't make any movement to get out of the rain, so I cuddled into him more, hiding myself in the curve of his body. A few minutes passed and my breath was finally calm. His body sheltered me from the strengthening rain as he held me. I knew he had to be getting soaked, but I didn't think that either of us wanted this feeling to end. When I started to notice the rain soaking down to his chest, I lifted my head so I could look up at him.

His eyes were soft as he wiped a fresh drop of rain from my cheek. I closed my eyes and pressed my cheek into his palm, relishing the feel of his skin on mine.

"You should probably get changed into something dry," I said, my voice slow and dreamy.

"Will you still be here if I leave you alone for five minutes?" I could hear the hint of sarcasm in his voice. I smiled and turned my face into his palm, brushing his skin with my lips.

"Maybe," I teased. "I think my knees might still be too weak to run."

He chuckled and let his grip around my waist relax. I slipped around the pillar I had been pressed against and backed up a few steps. As he moved onto the porch his eyes looked me up and down like he was drinking in the sight of me. The corner of his mouth turned up as his eyes paused over my chest. "Rangiku has certainly had an effect on you."

I looked down and blushed crimson. My shihakusho top had slipped open like Rangiku's normally was, exposing a line of skin almost down to my belly button. I quickly pulled the edges together and held them closed with both hands. I heard him chuckle as he opened the back door and disappeared inside.

Quickly fixing my top I hesitated to follow him inside. I looked down to my zanpakuto and wondered for a moment if she had known how much of an idiot I was going to be today. I glanced back at the door and reached out to close it. I turned back to the view of the pond and the falling rain and sat down on the edge of the porch. The wind was blowing the rain away from the shelter of the roof, so where I sat was perfectly dry. I pulled my zanpakuto from her sheath and set her across my lap.

"Hey," I said quietly to her.

"Hey," she replied from right beside me. She was still naked, but she sat with her legs pulled up against her chest, her arms resting on her knees. Together we stared out at the pond, watching the rain tickle the leaves of the plum trees.

"So, you knew this would happen?" I asked her.

She hummed a note of agreeance. "This day has been in the making since he saved you that night."

"Even if last night had…" I hesitated. "Gone badly?"

"Yes."

"So, it was fated?" I asked her.

"Somewhat. This was the result of your turning point. Despite the strange events since then, you two have been drawn towards one another. I'm sure you feel it," she said as she drew one hand away from her knees and reached out into the rain.

"So, we didn't have a choice?"

She barked out a laugh. "Do any of us have a choice when it comes to falling in love?"

"I suppose not," I replied with a small smile.

"You are just dense. Like a rock." She made a face at me, like she was pretending to be stupid. I smacked her leg with the back of my hand and she splashed the water that had been collecting in her hand at me.

"You aren't very helpful in the clues department," I retorted as I wiped my face.

"Maybe if you hear my name the next time I say it, I'll be more helpful." She winked at me.

"Maybe if you speak up, I won't have an issue hearing it."

She laughed lightly at me and vanished. I stared at the spot she had been and wondered just what tomorrow would hold.


	7. She Who Breaks

Seer

She Who Breaks

I couldn't work like this. I was the definition of distracted. Just looking at paper work had me day dreaming of the day before. After Captain Hitsugaya had changed, Rangiku had shown up and offered me her spare room for the night. I had graciously accepted. I hadn't wanted to leave his side yet, but… well, it wouldn't have been proper for me to have stayed at his house again that night. Surely if anyone found out I'd been reprimanded by my sister for maintaining an improper relationship. Then again, I didn't particularly care about that right now.

The way he had kissed me, so hungry and passionate… His hand as it wove through my hair… my body pressed so tightly to his…

"Ria!"

I jumped clear out of my seat. Rangiku stood in the doorway of her office smiling like a cat that just finished her milk.

"I caught you day dreaming again!" She cheered as she sauntered over to me.

"Sorry," I apologized as I looked back down at the papers in front of me. I had been sitting here for a few hours now at her desk, but I had only gotten maybe a third of what I could have normally done completed.

"So, are you gonna tell me what happened yesterday?" She prompted as she sat on the corner of her desk, her eyes intent on me.

"I wasn't planning to," I said quietly.

"Aw, come on Ria!" She said with a pout. "I promise I won't utter a single word to anyone else!"

"That promise only lasts until you're drunk," I replied.

"I promise! For real this time!"

"No way," I denied.

She gave me a glaring pout as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You're no fun."

"And you're too much fun. This shirt is just ridiculous. If I even take too deep of a breath I end up exposing myself." I said gesturing to the shihakusho top she had loaned me again this morning. I hadn't had a chance to fix my room yet, so all my uniforms were most likely still trashed.

Rangiku smirked. "I bet the captain likes it."

A blush exploded across my face. Her delighted giggling just served to remind me of the attention Rangiku's ridiculous shirt had gotten me from the captain yesterday. I stood up from the desk, grabbing my zanpakuto from where I had rested her against the table. I had been so stuck in la-la land that I hadn't spoken to her yet today. But… if something needed to be said I trusted her to let me know. I just wanted to keep dreaming.

"Where are you going?" She asked, still giggling.

"Away from your teasing," I said as I picked up one of the stacks of paper I had actually managed to do.

"Aren't those for the captain?" She asked, pointing at the stack I was holding.

I looked down at the paperwork and shook my head defiantly. "No," I said curtly and stalked out of the room. Yes, the stack was for the captain but I wasn't going to give her any more ammo to tease me with. I hadn't even realized that this was the stack I'd grabbed until she said something. Maybe I had been looking for an excuse to see him.

A short trip down the hallway and I was peering around the open doorway into the captain's office. He was sitting at his desk, his chair turned towards the windows on the far wall. His profile looked like he was gazing off into another world. I could imagine that my face had looked similar when Rangiku surprised me. I couldn't help but to smile to myself.

Shuffling the papers in my arms a bit, I made sure to walk heavy so I could attract his attention as I walked into his office. It only took him a few seconds to notice me and turn to watch me walk into the room.

"Good morning sir," I said as I placed the papers on the side of his desk.

"Good morning Ria," He replied, making it a point to say my name.

My cheeks warmed at his familiar greeting. He didn't say my name any differently than Rangiku did, but coming from him it just sounded so much better. His eyes were so intense as he looked at me. The pressure of holding his gaze was too much, so I looked down at the papers I had placed on his desk before my face decided to ignite.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked.

"Not as well as I did the night before, but well enough," I replied, recalling how I had woken up to him sitting next to me.

"No more nightmares?" he asked as he made his way across the room. He stopped when he was at my side, only a small distance separating us.

"Not that I remember," I said shaking my head. His hand brushed mine, his fingers trailing over my knuckles. I turned my hand into his, hooking his fingers with my own. "You know Rangiku followed me, right?" I whispered just loud enough for him to hear me.

"Of course she did," he said not bothering to whisper back.

I looked up to him and gave him a small smile. His hand left mine and he raised it, running his fingers from my ear to my chin leaving a tingling trail. The touch made my heart skip a beat. His gaze softened for only a second before he blinked and his expression became his usual intimidating stare. It didn't bother me one bit watching his face change like that. It made me happy to know that the other, softer side of him was just for me.

"Rangiku," he said sharply as he turned to the open door.

The lieutenant didn't even try to hide the fact that she had been looming just around the corner. "Yes Captain," she said cheerily as she walked into the room.

"Where's the report from the 8th combat team?" He asked, the annoyance clear in his voice.

I glanced up to him curiously. The 8th combat team was comprised of the newer soul reapers in the squad. They were sent to the Human World shortly after entering the squad to gain experience fighting hollows and performing basic duties in the squad's setting. The combat team was led by some one of the lower seated officers, Sanado Koji but he was a perfectly capable guy as far as I knew. He was one of the members of the squad that was particularly gifted with kaido.

"What report?" She asked as she quirked her head to the side.

"They should have been back two days ago. You were supposed to help them write up the report."

"But they haven't returned yet sir," she responded, a confused look on her face. "I sent 4th Seat Kyrouni and 5th seat Ono to investigate this morning."

He paused as he thought it over. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Let me know when they return."

She nodded and looked between the two of us a few times before hiding a grin behind her hand and walking away. She so knew there was something going on between us… sigh.

"I typically avoid the combat teams, so maybe I'm mistaken," I started to say. "But doesn't the 8th combat team usually return early?"

"Yes," he said with a small sigh. "I would go check on them myself, but I can't just run off to the Human World whenever I feel like it."

I nodded, understanding what he was saying. "I'm sure they're fine. Sanado is a good guy." I said reassuringly.

He turned back to me, his eye brow quirked. "Is he now?" His voice said he was playing with me, but those aquamarine eyes were all serious. He moved towards me, closing the distance between us. I turned to fully face him as he came up to me and ended up with the backs of my legs pressed to his desk. Butterflies started wreaking havoc on my stomach as he loomed over me, resting his hands on the edge of the desk behind me. His face was so close to mine that if I hadn't been frozen with nerves I could have kissed him.

"Um, I think so," I started to babble. "I mean, I've never had a long discussion with him, but we have spoken in passing since I had to process their paperwork for Rangiku on several occasions."

He watched my face for a long moment as I fought off another blush. He huffed out a small laugh and dropped his intimidating stare. I relaxed from a tension I hadn't realized I was holding. He was just messing with me.

"Are you doing anything this evening?" He asked quietly.

"No, but I might be working a late. I have to go over the inventories for a few of the warehouses before they go to you for signature tomorrow."

"Come find me when you're done then," he said as he leaned down. He pressed his lips to my forehead in a quick kiss before he stepped back and started for the door.

"Sure," I replied to him as he left his office. My heart was racing as I put my weight on his desk. He was just so intense. I didn't think my heart could handle the way he made it race, but the feeling was so delightfully giddy. Part of me wanted to squeal like a little girl while the other wanted to grab him and never let go. How he could do this to me was just baffling. I had always thought decent thoughts about anyone I was attracted to, or I had until he started saying my name like that…

"Ria…"

Mentally slapping myself I pushed away from his desk and headed to my own office on the second floor. I shared a large office with several of the other officers, but I didn't really spend much time there. Most of the time I was out of the office or stuck doing Lieutenant Rangiku's paperwork at her desk. But, my desk had my inbox where I knew the inventory sheets had been delivered.

Entering the office, I glanced in before moving to my desk. Apparently Amagi and Nabari had left already because the room was empty, papers still scattered across their desks. Quickly darting in I retrieved the inventory list from my desk and left. If I hurried over to the warehouse and started working, maybe I could get it all done before it got dark out.

On my way out of the building, I stopped at the door when I heard Amagi's voice. It sounded like he was on a speaker phone or something.

"-wiped out. We're trying to find the Adjuchas now, but we can't seem to pin point its location." He sounded winded as he spoke, like he had been running for a while.

"Retrieve the combat team's members and return to the Soul Society," Captain Hitsugaya ordered. "We're on our way."

Footsteps rushed my way and I pushed the door open, holding it. Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Rangiku rushed by me. I caught the captain's eye as he passed and bowed my head, silently wishing them safe when they went to the Human World. He didn't hesitate to say anything, he just kept moving until they both vanished with a flash step. Maybe he knew that I had heard their conversation.

Releasing the door, I let it shut on its own as I headed for the warehouse. I had seen them run out the door before to go fight things. I wasn't worried about them… much. They're survived so much over the years. One adjuchas shouldn't be able to do any real harm to them. Hopefully they would be back by the time I finished my inventories. I… I wanted to see Toshiro later… I let out a sigh and shook the thought from my head. If I started day dreaming again then I would never get done tonight!

I had been inventorying the stock in the warehouse for almost an hour when I felt the spiritual pressure of someone nearby. I paused as I was looking down the list and looked up to the warehouse doors. I watched the door way for a long moment, waiting for whoever it was to come around the corner. After a few minutes, I set my clipboard down and headed for the warehouse door. I didn't recognize who was outside, but this was Squad 10's area. It had to be someone from the squad, or someone that had been sent to me in Captain Hitsugaya and Rangiku's place.

"Do you need something?" I asked to whoever was outside as I stepped around the corner. I paused as I saw a member of the stealth force kneeling a few feet away. I glanced around, looking for anyone else that could be here. Nope, it was just this guy…

"Is there a message from Squad 2 or something?" I asked him.

He just stayed kneeling, his face shadowed as he looked at the ground. He looked like any other member of the Executive Militia. His outfit was a solid black with coverings that made him impossible to identify while tight bands looped around his arms and legs to keep the fabric of his uniform tight to his body. With his face shadowed I couldn't see the only unique feature about him, which would be his eyes.

I quirked an eyebrow at him as I tapped my foot, "Well come on now. Why are you here? Normally someone from Inner Court comes to deliver messages."

He just kept kneeling there… Doing nothing… What a weirdo.

I let out a sigh and gave him my back. "Whatever. Keep kneeling there all day if you want," I said as I stalked back into the warehouse. I didn't hear him move so much as feel his spiritual pressure shift. I whipped my zanpakuto from her sheath, drawing her blade down my left arm as I moved to block his sword.

"What the hell?" I half shouted as I forced him back. He jumped back from me, putting distance between us. I glared at him until crazed, grey eyes looked at me. They were the same eyes that my assailant had the other night…

"Bakudo #4." I shouted as I raised my palm towards the man, "Hainawa!" A golden crackling light shot from my hand towards the man. He didn't even bother to try and dodge it, letting it wrap around his upper body and immobilize his arms. His eyes seemed to glow with an inner light and I felt his spiritual pressure spike. He started pulling at the light, breaking my bakudo.

"No way," I mumbled as I watched the man. Quickly I recalled the incantation for a higher Bakudo and pointed my finger at him.

"Carriage of thunder, bridge of the spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudo #61. Rikujokoro!" The bands of light that were wrapped around him shifted and became six beams of light that punctured him through his waist. He froze under the power of my kido. I watched him for a long moment, wanting to ensure that it held. I was ready to call on my shikai if I had to having already bloodied my blade, but if the Bakudo would hold I'd avoid spending the energy on it.

I stood waiting for a long moment before I decided that he wasn't going to be moving. I kept my zanpakuto in my hand just in case, but I relaxed otherwise. I could call on a kido that was in the 70's but it was pretty weak without an incantation. Thanks to using that lower numbered kido I was able to get the incantation out before he broke free.

This was probably a stupid idea, but… I approached the man slowly. I wanted to see his face. Captain Hitsugaya had said that the man who had assaulted me was dead, but this guy had the same crazy eyes. I had to see the rest of his face. I had to know if this was the same guy or not.

I stopped only an arms distance from the man. He was about my height with a slender build and a narrow head which already told me he wasn't the same guy. The one who had been in my room had been tall enough to lean over the beams of Rikujokoro and kiss me… Slowly I reached out and pulled the covering off his mouth. His lips were frozen in an angry line from when he had been flexing to break my first kido spell. But, he didn't have the same face as the other guy. This dude was older by a fair bit, his lips were thinner, his teeth a little crooked and the lines of age present on his face.

"Who are you?" I mumbled to myself as I tried to put his face to a memory. I just didn't recognize him at all.

His eyes suddenly flicked to my face. I startled and started to move back, but his hand shot out and grabbed my shihakusho. I pulled back against his grip as I swung my sword down on his arm. He let go at the last second and pulled his arm back to avoid my swing. I flash stepped away from him, ending up a good thirty feet away. I watched as my bakudo crumbled around him and he stood straight, a grin smeared across his face.

It was like my bakudo hadn't affected him at all, and he had just been pretending to be trapped. I wasn't using my shikai, so my spiritual pressure should have been stronger than his. What in hell was he?

"Ria Yamamoto," his voice came out gruff and strained. "I'm going to make you regret ever having become a Soul Reaper."

He lunged at me then, moving so fast I had a hard time tracking him. A zing of adrenaline shot through me as I turned to block several small daggers that came shooting my way. A sharp pain shot into my sword arm, but I ignored it and called my shikai, "Okurimono no Kontorōru!"

The man backed off as I pulled a curved sheet of concrete from the ground, effectively giving myself something to put my back to. In my mind's eye, I reinforced the concrete over and over, making its density increase until I felt it shouldn't break under his assault. The strain of using so much energy made my chest tight, but I forced the weakness back. If I grabbed my blade to make it easier to use my shikai I would be unable to defend myself with my sword, and if I switched hands to my bleeding arm my grip would be compromised by the wetness of my blood constantly on the hilt.

The man abruptly laughed, his head throwing back as he got louder. The sound of his almost desperate laughter was unnerving. It sounded like it almost hurt for him to laugh. But out here where I could fight back I wasn't scared of him. He didn't feel all that powerful, but the way he moved he was certainly gifted with shunpo.

"Why?" I asked him.

He stopped laughing, but small giggles continued to bubble up as he pulled his head down and looked at me. "Because!" He shouted. "You are weak!"

He vanished so quickly that I couldn't track him. Maintaining my shikai drained my spiritual energy slowly, I knew that, but I should have been able to still feel his movements. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the ground. I sent the banners of my power through the floor, creating a blanket of control ten feet out from my body. I let myself relax, feeling the ground and waiting. I felt the tap of his foot touching the ground to my right, but I didn't react. A tap to my left. A tap behind the wall. A tap directly in front of me.

I struck out with my mind's eye, capturing his foot in the shifted ground. He fell forward with his trapped foot, but before he actually hit the ground he spun, the concrete shattering, and vanished again. I frowned. He wouldn't fall for that twice.

I reached up, grabbing the air behind my head and made the motions to pull a hood over my head. The wall behind me cracked, crumbled and reformed into a room with one wall missing. I held my free hand up and channeled my spirit energy into a kyomon barrier. Satisfied with the mostly clear barrier that sealed off the entrance to my little room I lowered my hand. I shook my head as weariness hit me. I hadn't actually used kido and my shikai at the same time before, but now I was confident I wouldn't have to fend off his attacks.

Quickly I shifted my zanpakuto to my other hand and sliced my sword hand's palm with her blade. I grimaced at the pain. I didn't normally cut up my sword hand. Transferring her back into my freshly sliced palm I ripped free some of the black fabric of my shihakusho top and used it to bind my hand to her hilt. Holding her hilt wasn't as effective as holding her blade, but it was better. Already I could feel the strain of maintaining my shikai easing, like I had been carrying buckets of water on my shoulders and they were slowly being emptied, lightening the load I had been carrying.

I looked up to my barrier and saw the man standing there, his forehead pressed to the barrier like it was made of glass. His eyes were wide, staring at me with a sadistic grin on his face. I took a step back from the barrier, startled by his expression.

"Come out, come out little Ria." He said in a sing song voice.

"Do I look stupid to you?" I retorted.

"You look weak, and trapped." He licked his lips and chuckled. "Like a mouse in a trap."

I frowned at him and sent my power through the concrete at my feet. Before I could even try to trap him in the concrete again he vanished. I felt his spiritual pressure spike at the back of my box where I couldn't see him. I turned and watched the wall, startled by his move. Was he going to try and break my wall? I had reinforced the crap out of it. It would be easier to break through a metal door than it would be to get through my walls.

"Hado #63," I heard him call out. "Raikoho!"

The blast from his kido shook the earth and I fell to my knees with it. Using the wall to help myself get back up I stared in horror at the crack that had formed in the concrete. My god, how on earth was he so strong? Shaking my head I quickly repaired the crack and added an extra layer of reinforcement to the walls.

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast!" He shouted. "Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!"

Fuck, he was using the incantation this time.

"Hado #63. Raikoho!"

I felt the power of his kido explode. Knowing it would break my walls I reached out and touched the kyomon barrier to break it. I flash stepped from my room just as it exploded with crackling yellow energy. The force of the blast caught me mid step and shot me clear across the open area outside the warehouse. I pulled the air around me close to try and protect myself from some of the impact as I crashed through the walls to another warehouse. I felt my back collide with the shelving inside the ware house and take it with me as I crashed into the other side of the building.

'Ria, wake up!' my zanpakuto's voice rang in my head.

I must have blacked out for a short time, because the next thing I knew I was crumpled in a heap underneath a pile of rubble. I tried to lift my head, but I was pinned by the weight of whatever was on top of me. I flexed my hands and toes, trying to figure out how badly I was hurt. Everything ached, but everything was moving. Good.

'Ria, you need to move,' my zanpakuto urged me. I opened my eyes to only be greeted by darkness.

"Where's he?" I asked. My words were slurred as I spoke.

'This isn't how this fight was supposed to go. You need to move, Ria. You need to get outside,' her voice was on the verge panic. 'You'll die if you stay here.'

I let out my breath and flexed my grip on her hilt. Always with the running…

My shikai was still active as I tested it, moving the materials around me to make way for my wobbling movements. I gripped a bar of metal that was at my knee and lifted it with my shikai, using it to stand. As the debris cleared light streamed in from outside, blinding me. Letting go of the metal I tried to walk out of warehouse, but I felt dizzy and off balance. I must have had a doozy of a concussion. I stumbled over to an intact wall and used it to guide me as I made my way over to the side door of the warehouse. I just knew that I needed to avoid the way I had come in. He was in that direction…

I lifted my hand as I came up to the walk-in door and twisted it in a quick, flicking motion. The door handle unlocked and pushed open.

"Hado #78," I heard him call out. "Zangerin!" I threw myself through the door just before the explosion could engulf me. The force of it sent me flying once more and I ended up rolling across the ground like a rag doll until I collided with a wall. I couldn't cushion myself this time, and I took the full impact with my back. Slowly I slid from the crater I had left in the wall, landing on my stomach with my head turned towards what was left of the warehouse.

I tried to move, but it was like there was disconnect between what my head wanted to do and what my body did. Every movement was so sluggish and weak that all I ended up doing was moving a few fingers instead of my whole arm. I could feel blood running down my face, the cuts and bruises from crashing into debris all over my body, the distinct lack of being able to think clearly…

With blurry eyes, I watched the man stalk towards me, his arms swinging at his sides as if he were happily strutting towards me. I couldn't make out any definition other than his black clothing against the white of the Seireitei concrete and plaster.

"That's enough," another male voice said. The man walking towards me stopped and turned his posture straightening.

"But I'm not done with her," he growled.

"I didn't want you to kill her," The other voice replied. "If you had I would have been very, very angry with you."

The man slouched as if cowering in on himself. "Fine," he snapped before vanishing.

Footsteps approached me until a pair of geta stood in my line of sight. I tried to look up at him from the corner of my eye, but my vision fuzzed out and I had to close my eyes. I heard him shift so I forced my eyes to open. He had knelt beside me, his pale grey hakama coming into view.

"You really are pathetic," he said, his voice sounding disappointed. "Though your kido was surprising, your powers as a soul reaper are severely lacking."

I felt his hand clamp around my sword hand and lift it, zanpakuto and all, forcing my arm to bend in a way it wasn't meant to. I couldn't help but to let out a small cry as he stood, bending my arm further.

"Shut up," He growled as he stomped down on my shoulder. I felt the joint pop under his weight as he dislocated the big joint. I screamed as he turned my hand like he was trying to twist it off, which earned me a harsh kick to my side. He started pulling at the ties that bound my hand to my hilt. He must have been trying to disarm me. I pushed what little energy I had at my zanpakuto, calling on my still active shikai. I felt her push back, offering me the energy I needed. Pulling cracked concrete from the wall I had crashed into, I moved it to my sword hand in strings of partially formed reishi.

"What the hell," he exclaimed as he dropped my hand. It fell to the ground as I wound the concrete around my hand and zanpakuto. I coated everything from my bicep down in the smooth concrete, including my zanpakuto's blade. I pushed reishi into the concrete, strengthening it until I was sure he couldn't break it without some sort of extra force.

He cursed low on his breath when I finished sealing my limb. I felt him stomp down on my arm through my dislocated shoulder, but the concrete didn't give. He stomped again and again, frustration evident in his grunts as he put his entire body into trying to break the concrete. After a moment, he stopped and let out a sigh.

"It doesn't matter, Miss Yamamoto," he said. "If we could do this to you once so easily, we can do it to you again. We will make sure to disable you completely next time. I don't particularly want to dismember you, yet. Though, I will enjoy humiliating you when the time comes," His voice sounded nonchalant as he tapped my shoulder. Chuckling as a whimper escaped my mouth, he stood up and started walking away.

"Your captain can't always be around to save you," he commented just before his presence vanished.

My eyes fluttered as I laid there, unable to pass out or move. I couldn't hear anything besides the crackling and popping sounds coming from the still collapsing warehouse. I felt my shikai slowly give way and with it, my connection to my zanpakuto fell and I was swallowed by darkness.

I woke and passed out several times as the day wore into night. I couldn't seem to maintain consciousness for more than a few minutes at a time. Every time I woke, nothing but the amount of light in the sky had changed. This area could go days without someone passing through, but if an entire warehouse blowing up and the spiking spiritual pressure hadn't caught someone's attention there likely wouldn't be anyone in the area for some time. I had at least told the captain where I was going to be. If he returned and I wasn't anywhere to be found, I knew he would come. The only question was, how long until he returned? Would anyone even notice me? I was a good distance from the warehouse, and even further away from where I had been taking inventory.

My body was slowly healing the minor injuries on its own, but without help I would never get my shoulder back into its socket. Hell, without help I probably wouldn't be able to get up… If the captain was detained in the Human World, I could be stuck here for days… I had to move. I had to try.

Using my free hand I shakily pushed my upper body off the ground. My injured shoulder cried out as I moved, the weight of concrete pulling on it only worsened it. Gradually I made it to a sitting position, my sword arm resting uselessly at my side. I had leaned back against the wall, but the new position was worse. I couldn't keep my head up, I just didn't have the energy so it ended up falling back into the crater that my body had made. It was hard to breathe sitting too. He had to have bruised a few of my ribs when he kicked me. 'Damn it,' I thought as my head fell forward and I felt the world slip away once more.

The next time I opened my eyes I had a very hard time focusing on my surroundings. It had to be the middle of the night now because of just how dark it was. There were no lights outside of the warehouses in this area, but the moon was bright, casting a shadow over most of my body. Holding my head up was an effort, but it allowed me to see the entire area in all its blurry detail. I was pretty sure that I was starting to see things in the shadows, but my vision was so horrible that I couldn't tell.

I heard something coming from the demolished warehouse. My eyes sluggishly shifted to look in the general direction. A few shapes moved among the debris. Voices gradually registered in my head, but it took me so long to realize what they were. Noise… voices… people…

A weak smile turned my lips. Someone had come. I tried to make some sort of noise, but I couldn't seem to get the air I needed. I started getting light headed as I tried to take a deeper breath, my ribs protesting and forcing me to only make a whisper. Giving up on calling out, I forced my spiritual pressure to rise. The effort ate at the edges of my vision, and I felt myself starting to pass out as I called on my reserves.

'Please, feel me,' I thought as my eyes closed and my head lolled back.

A hand was there to catch my head before it could hit the concrete. I didn't need to open my eyes to know who it was. "We've got to stop meeting like this," I whispered, my words slow to form between the shallow breaths I was taking.

"I can't leave you alone for a second," Captain Hitsugaya replied, relief clear in his voice.

I gave him my best smile, a bare twitch of the corner of my mouth. "You never know what you're gonna come back to," I teased just before the world went black once more.


	8. She Who Evolves

**Seer**

**She Who Evolves**

"They couldn't get the substance covering her arm and zanpakuto off without risking breaking her arm," Rangiku said. "Despite that, all her injuries are healed. She just needs to wake up on her own."

"Are you sure that you don't mind her staying with you for a while?" Captain Hitsugaya asked.

"Someone used kido against her. That means one of our own got into a fight with her at the very least. Between the night of the festival and now, staying with me is the safest place for her." Rangiku answered.

"Yes, it is." The captain said with a sigh. "Until we figure out what's going on, she needs to remain in the presence of one of the officers."

"Do you have any idea what's going on Captain?" Rangiku asked.

"No more than you do now," he commented. "Whoever has been targeting her is being very careful."

"A man in a grey hakama," I mumbled. They seemed to startle at my words. I hadn't really realized I was awake until that moment either. I had expected to wake to pain in some form, but I felt like I was just lying there as if I had been sleeping. I had assumed that I was dreaming, but… Opening my eyes, I blinked up at the ceiling. "A man in a grey hakama, and a guy dressed like the stealth force's execution squad," I elaborated.

"The execution squad?" Rangiku asked.

I started moving to sit up but my arm refused to move. Remembering I had encased my arm from my bicep down in concrete I used my other arm to prop my top half up, leaving my sword arm to remain where it was with my encased zanpakuto resting across my body. I watched Rangiku and Captain Hitsugaya as they moved from where they had been standing in front of a window on the other side of the room over to me.

"That's what he was dressed like," I said. "He was the one that used kido against me."

"And the other guy?" Rangiku asked.

"He appeared after I couldn't move and tried to unbind my hand from my zanpakuto," I replied. "I don't know if he was trying to take her or just disarm me because my shikai was still running." I shook my head and looked down to my encased arm.

"Rangiku, can you give us a moment please?" Captain Hitsugaya said quietly. We both looked over to him. His expression was steady and he looked calm. I shouldn't have expected anything different, but part of me had wanted to see him angry or something. Maybe he was just controlling his face?

"Sure," she said standing. "I'll be in the other room if you need me."

"Thank you," he replied as she moved towards the door and disappeared through it.

I watched the door for a long moment before I let out a small sigh. Straining against the weight of my arm I sat up and pushed my zanpakuto from my lap so my hand could rest against the ground at my side. My arm was still frozen with my elbow hyperextended from how that man had twisted my arm. Moving my arm off to my side had almost been painful with the stress of being stuck in such a position for so long. Grasping my shoulder I rotated the joint, dipping my body so I didn't have to lift my arm to do it. I flexed my hand, trying to feel the cut I had made to strengthen my shikai. I didn't feel any pain, just the concrete and the dried blood from an old wound. "Well shit," I commented. "They healed my hand too."

"Squad 4 said that your arm wasn't broken," He stated. "Did you encase your arm like that to prevent him from disarming you?"

"Yeah," I replied softly. "He dislocated my shoulder just before he started trying to pry my hand from my hilt. I couldn't really fight him by then and my hand was only on my hilt because I had tied there, so I used my shikai to do this."

"Can you break it?" He asked as he reached out to touch the tip of my zanpakuto where it had crossed my body.

"Not without my shikai," I said shaking my head. "The cut I made on my hand has healed, and I completely encased my zanpakuto to make sure he couldn't try to break her, or that might have been her." I laughed a little to myself. "I think that was the first time she's ever helped me use shikai. I probably couldn't have done it without the help."

"Have you asked her if she can break it?"

I looked up him with surprise that slowly melted away as I realized what I had said. She'd helped me… Normally I forced my shikai. It was 100% my own power that fueled it and she resisted me every step of the way.

"No," I said slowly, still thinking through what had happened.

"I can break you free from this substance, but it will probably hurt you." His expression fell as he spoke. "I would much prefer not to do that. Talk to her, ask for her help."

"It's concrete, by the way," I said. "Reinforced concrete."

"I thought it was something like that," he murmured. I felt his hand rest on my back, helping me as I maneuvered my legs around to my side. I rested back on his hand just enough to tell him to keep it there. I didn't need his support, but the feeling of him touching me eased something inside me.

'Zanpakuto,' I called to her with my thoughts.

Silence greeted me.

I tried calling to her again, but I was greeted with silence once more. I frowned down at her. "Are you listening?" I half shouted at her.

"What?" her voice came, sounding annoyed. I looked up to see her standing a few feet away and couldn't stop my jaw from dropping. Her mask today didn't look like a mask. It looked like it was part of her, the gold plates appearing to be part of her skin as they layered away from her cheeks and melded into her hair. Her eyes were painted gold while raised golden vines danced across her eye brows and up into her hair line. Her lips were golden as well, but instead of stopping at just her lips the colors raised into more vines, swirling around her cheeks and up to her ears. The same designs were present down her neck and anywhere she skin was visible. Her kimono was shades of white and gold, the patterns across the fabric only interrupted by the armor like plates that covered her hips, shoulders and breasts.

I was so stunned by her appearance that I couldn't say anything. She looked like a goddess in gold, her teal eyes only adding to the awe that was her.

She let out a frustrated sigh. "You are such a clod. It is hard to hear anything inside that concrete sheath. If you had thought louder I might have heard you before you had to start yelling."

I opened and closed my mouth like a beached fish a few times before I remembered how to talk. "What's with the outfit?"

A smile quirked her lips as she looked down on us both. "You are just going to love your name." She walked towards us and knelt in front of me. "She who evolves, but you're going to have to earn it today little soul reaper." She poked my nose with her finger, her eyes clearly stating a challenge.

I nodded at her as I wondered about what was going to happen. Then it occurred to me... "What was supposed to happen yesterday?"

She let out a sigh and stood, the gold that was woven through her hair jingling as she moved. "I wanted to see what would happen. That fight had been in the making for two days. Not quite breaking the rules, but close." She glanced back at us from over her shoulder. Her eyes were on Captain Hitsugaya as she said, "You weren't supposed to leave. There shouldn't have been an Adjuchas in the Human World for you to go fight. You were supposed to feel her when the fight started and intervene just after she was disabled. Instead you returned after Ria's fight and felt nothing."

Her gaze fastened on me then, her eyes boring into me. "She Who Breaks, was your name. You should have come out of that with a few broken bones from your impact into the warehouse. When all you did was pass out, I realized that something had changed. I can only see your future, little soul reaper. I cannot see how the world changes if you aren't in it."

I nodded, knowing already that she could only see me. "Why did you lend me your power?"

Her gaze quickly darted away from me to stare at the window. She didn't answer me for a long time, but eventually her gaze slowly trailed back to me. "I didn't want there to be a possibility of us being separated."

"So, he was trying to take you away from me?"

"I do not know. When your names do not come to pass as intended, the future becomes confusing and sorting through your possible names becomes impossible for a time."

"Could you lend me your power again?" I asked softly.

"Why?" She asked sharply.

I motioned down to my arm. "I can't exactly get out of this without your help."

Her eyes narrowed at me. "You can get out of it. You are choosing to ask me for help instead of your captain."

"I am." I stated, meeting her gaze.

She stared me down for a long moment, her gaze becoming an intense glare. I held her eyes, not allowing myself to falter under the pressure that she seemed to be putting on me. "I don't think you're ready," she said quietly.

"How will you know if you don't give me the chance?"

She rolled her eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Tankyu no Unmei."

"What is that?" I asked her.

"It's my name you block head," she bit out. "I'm only saying it once, so you better not forget it." And she vanished.

I blinked at the spot she had been, not believing what she had said. "Tankyu… no Unmei," I mumbled to myself, still not believing it. The concrete that surrounded my arm cracked and I startled. It cracked again, a gap in the concrete opening clear down my arm. I flexed my arm, pressing against the cement to bend my elbow. The concrete gave, crumbling to dust as it parted with my skin. It continued to fall from my arm and zanpakuto until nothing remained but a light layer of dust. Hesitantly I reached over and untied the cloth I had used to bind my hand to the hilt. My hand was numb from the pressure of the concrete, so as the ties came lose she slipped from my hand to fall to the futon.

I stared down at my zanpakuto in wonder. She had really just given me her name. Her real name… I held in the squeal of excitement as it really hit me. Tankyu no Unmei! My zanpakuto finally had a name! She finally had a name! I wouldn't have to cut myself any more to use my shikai! Maybe… I'd have to test it out. I started to reach for my zanpakuto to hesitated. I was in Rangiku's house. Releasing my real shikai for the first time inside her home probably wasn't the smartest of ideas.

My arm started to tingle as blood rushed back to my limb. I pulled it into my body and cradled it, massaging the muscles as they started the tingling transition into mind numbing pain. I watched as Captain Hitsugaya came to kneel in front of me, his hand resting on my shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"Concrete too tight," I bit out between my clenched teeth. "I'm fine."

He nodded and dropped his hand.

I did my best to not make any funny, in-pain faces as the pain worked its way down my arm and through my fingers. When it was done I flexed my fingers, testing my hand. The joints were stiff, but otherwise I felt fine.

"What time was it when you found me?" I asked as I looked up to him.

"Shortly after midnight," he said. "I'd thought something had happened when it started getting well into the evening. When I arrived at the warehouses, I could only feel the traces of your residual spirit pressure and whoever you fought." His gaze slowly trailed down to rest on my arms. "I was worried for you."

I reached out to him, hesitantly resting my hand on the back of his. "I was worried too," I admitted. "But when they left me there alive, I knew you would come eventually." I told him everything that had happened. I tried to keep my words factual, but I could help but to add how things felt to me. How the stealth force guy was completely resistant to my kido. How he hadn't had a zanpakuto, but he had been so incredibly gifted with kido that he could use Zangerin without an incantation and still do so much damage. How the grey hakama guy seemed to be in charge of the man, but completely ordinary himself.

He let me talk without interruption or asking questions. He just knelt there and listened patiently, even when I started to babble towards the end. It was when I got to the part about seeing them and not being able to call out that he moved. He shifted forward, turning his hand so he could grip mine to pull me into him. Surprised by his sudden movement I fell into him, my face pressing into his shoulder as he hugged me to him.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realize you were there," he said into my hair. "I couldn't feel you and I was so focused on trying to figure out what had happened."

I hugged him back once the surprise wore off. "Its fine," I said quickly. "I had been knocked quite a ways away from the warehouse when he used his kido. How could you have known?"

"I should have known."

I laughed softly. "I'm not you. My spiritual pressure doesn't shine like a beacon. I'm like a small candle that can get blown out in a light breeze."

He didn't respond to me with words, but his grip around me tightened.

"I beg to differ," Rangiku said from outside the room. "You're like one of those annoying birthday candles that relights itself when you blow it out."

I laughed at her reference. She had spent far more time in the Human World that I ever had, but I knew what she was talking about. "I think they call them sparklers," I commented as I pulled away from Captain Hitsugaya. He seemed to be reluctant to let me go, his hands lingering on my waist until I had sat back down. "Have you been out there this whole time?" I asked lightly.

"Of course," she said as she slid the door open. "It is my house after all." Her voice was light, but her expression was serious.

"Sorry," I quickly said. "But thank you for letting me be all passed out in your guest room."

"How else am I supposed to snoop on you two?" She said, giving me a mischievous smile.

I couldn't help but to blush. "I-I don't know." I stuttered out.

She laughed and turned towards Captain Hitsugaya. "It sounds to me like we need to pay Captain Sui-feng a visit."

"I believe you're right," he replied. "Send a hell butterfly to Squad 2 and request a meeting with her."

Rangiku nodded but remained in the door way. "What are you going to do Captain?"

His gaze flicked to me then down to my zanpakuto. "Training."

It had taken an hour or so for us to actually get out of Rangiku's house. While I had been sleeping through the past two days, Rangiku had retrieved a few of my uniforms that weren't destroyed from my room and had left them for me to change into. It was nice having my uniform back instead of having to borrow Rangiku's overly revealing shihakusho. I still didn't have my kanzashi, so had left my hair to fall down my back in small waves. My hair wasn't pin straight like my sisters, something that I hated and enjoyed at the same time.

I had started to encourage us to leave once I was dressed, but Rangiku had insisted that I eat something. I was hungry. It had been two days since I had actually eaten a thing, but the excitement to trying out my new shikai was eating away at me… I ended up eating though. Between the urging of Rangiku and the look that Captain Hitsugaya gave me, I didn't have a choice.

When we arrived at the training area in the forest, dusk was starting to turn into night. The sun was gone, but there was enough light see the area with complete ease.

"They never repaired this place after the hollow attacked, did they?" I asked as we stopped on top of a downed tree. Several trees looked like they had been chopped off ten or twenty feet above the ground, leaving the tops of the trees lying around on the ground like oversized broccoli bits. It had only been a week since they had been chopped by the hollow, so all the leaves and needles were still green and alive looking.

"No," Captain Hitsugaya responded. "They don't care to fix things out here like they do inside the Seireitei. Hence, why we train out here."

I nodded in understanding. "So, why did we come all the way out here?"

"You said previously that wood was something you struggled with when using your shikai," He said as he jumped down to the ground. "Could you fix one of these trees before you learned your zanpakuto's name?"

I followed him, landing lightly beside him. "A fresh one that was smaller, maybe. But the ends of these trees have started to die. Even if I could put the back together, they wouldn't live."

He hummed his understanding and walked over to one of the untouched trees. He whipped out Hyorinmaru so fast that I didn't even see him draw the blade, it was just in his hand. The tree he had been looking at shuddered and split diagonally across its trunk. Slowly it slid to one side, the top half tilting with the movement. It seemed to fall in slow motion until the base and top completely separated and it fell with a boom, piercing the forest floor. He turned back to me, resting the blade of his sword on his shoulder in the process.

I blinked at the tree top as it settled to lean against a nearby tree. "You want me to fix that?" I said, gesturing towards it.

"I want you to try, yes." He said curtly. "You've believed that you would have more power once you learned your Zanpakuto's name. Test yourself, see what you can and can't do."

I sucked in a deep breath and steeled myself. I could do this. I practiced fixing branches and bark all the time. A tree trunk was just a really big stick. A really, really big stick…

Drawing my zanpakuto I started to move to cut my hand and paused. I… I didn't need to do this anymore. How did I even active my shikai without blood? I bit my lip and puzzled out what most of the other soul reapers did. They just called out their shikai and their zanpakuto's name, or vice versa. Would it really be so simple? I was suddenly nervous and unsure of myself. I had to figure it out. Instinct. Follow my gut…

I nodded at myself, settling on what I was going to do. I lowered my arm to my side, feeling no need to be aggressive about my stance. Relaxing my grip on my zanpakuto's sheath I called out, "Tankyu no Unmei, Okurimono no Kontorōru!"

I waited patiently, expecting some sort of feeling to creep up on me. But… nothing happened. I looked down to my zanpakuto, turning her blade so I could look into the steel. For a moment, I was only my reflection looking back at me, but as I watched, my zanpakuto's image slowly emerged. Her teal eyes watched me as I watched her. She didn't need to say anything, I understood. Okurimono no Knotororu wasn't the name of my shikai state. It was just something I said… I needed to pick a new name. Something that was her instead of what I had guessed she was.

"Maebure no Shukufuku."

Power surged through me from my zanpakuto. I closed my eyes, feeling the power as it caressed parts of me that I didn't know could feel anything. It felt like the power had manifested around me, the air moving in waves of power that tickled my skin and played with my hair. The feeling was so powerful that when I pushed the power outwards I could feel everything. When I had created a circle of power before it lined an object like a film and I could feel whatever disturbed the surface. This was like sonar. I could feel everything in the space around me. The movement of the wind, the shivering of the grass as that same wind brushed across it, the shifting of Captain Hitsugaya's haori as he sheathed his zanpakuto, the heavy thud of his heart beat…

I opened my eyes, wanted to see everything that I was feeling. It was like I had been nearly blind before using my shikai. The world was crystalline, lined with edges so clear that I could see the definition between each leaf in the trees that were dozens of yards away. Turning my gaze to Captain Hitsugaya I lost myself in the depths of his aquamarine eyes. So many hues of blue and teal, highlighted by the darkness of his pupils and augmented by the reflection of the greenery around us. His skin was flawless, the pigment even and smooth even over the sharpness of his cheek bones and jaw. His hair really was white as snow, the color even and showing no highlight from where the sun would normally bleach someone's hair.

"You are beautiful," I murmured. My gaze trailed down his body, noticing things about him that I had been to embarrassed to actually notice before. Despite the typically baggy shihakusho, he filled it out. His broad shoulders and lean body giving definition where most people's didn't. His hands were calloused from using his sword, but his fingers were long and almost elegant in their shape.

"Ria," his voice was deeper than normal when he said my name. It caused my eyes to trail back up his body to meet his gaze. His face was carefully neutral as he turned to gesture behind him. "Focus."

My own gaze flicked to the freshly downed tree he had gestured to. I nodded slowly before I pushed my power at it. Flecks of gold wafted in the general direction of the tree, swirling and churning like a playful breeze was influencing them. The flecks coated the tree in a warm glow and everything that was the tree exploded into my mind.

My eyes fluttered closed as I struggled to process all the information. Every fiber that I had once worked individually was suddenly there, in my head. I struggled to understand everything at once. It was just so much to think about at once. Reishi… reishi… I needed to break it all down into reishi. Reaching out with my mind's eye, I turned parts of the tree back into its original reishi form and lifted the tree. Unlike with the boulder last week, this was easy once I had a place to hold onto the tree. I lifted it from the ground without using any external gestures.

Placing it against the base of the tree was easy, but lining up was another matter entirely. I opened my eyes, staring at the ground as I saw with my mind and not my eyes. My head was starting to hurt from the strain of all the processes I had going through my mind. I pushed the pain away, focusing on the task at hand. Repair the core, seal the ring, seal the ring, seal the ring…

'It's too much,' I heard my zanpakuto's words in my head. 'You'll lose control if you keeping trying to use brute force.'

I shook her voice off, pushing it to the back of my head as I started rejoining the core of the tree. But, why was I doing just the core? I could do it all at once. I had the power. I could do it, I just needed to spread my attention.

'Tell him,' her voice said again. 'Tell Toshiro to disarm you if you lose it.'

I hesitated in my actions as I looked down to her blade. Her teal gaze met mine in the metal. Since when had she earned the right to call him by his first name? I scoffed at her and turned her down so I couldn't see her gaze. I felt the tree slip from my control for only a second. It started falling over and I reached out to catch it in my head. Catching it was easy, but the impact that it made on my mind burst stars through my eyes. Damn it…

"Captain," I said quietly. "Please disarm me if I start doing something weird. There's too much in my head…"

I felt his gaze focus more closely on me through that extra sense that was my shikai. I tried to not focus on him which caused my mind to wander. Gold flecks that seemed to glow with their own inner light scattered through the air as my senses expanded, consuming my thoughts. The progress I had made on the tree snapped and it came crashing back down to the ground, but the feel of the tree was only one of a million things that were going through my head. All the reishi in the area called to me. The plants, the dirt, the stones, even the reishi in the air consumed me as ever particle became its own thought in my head.

"Focus," Captain Hitsugaya repeated as he stepped towards me. I couldn't seem to reign in my senses. His voice was just another thing to categorize, his presence just another feeling to add to the list. It was just so much information. I couldn't do it. I started to let my zanpakuto slip from my hand, I had to stop it before I lost myself in the sensations completely. His hand suddenly closed over mine, forcing my grip on my zanpakuto's hilt to tighten.

"Don't give up," He urged. "Find something to focus on. Use me, your zanpakuto, whatever comes to mind, and focus on it." His other hand touched my chin, turning my head so I was gazing up at him. I stared up into those steady eyes, letting myself fall into them.

"Pull yourself in," he murmured. "Narrow your vision. You don't have to see everything at once. Just bit by bit."

I nodded slowly, "A piece of a puzzle," I said to myself. Slowly I drew my spread senses back in. It hurt to let the objects fall from my presence, like I was losing something that belonged to me. My body tensed as I dropped the objects one by one, letting them fall from my mind. The reishi… All those things that I could feel. I started to shake as my radius of awareness closed around us. I felt claustrophobic and the urge to explode was eating away at my control.

"Relax," he whispered, his hand leaving my chin.

"It hurts to restrain myself like this," I said quietly.

"Limit yourself, don't let your shikai control you." He replied. "You are the master of your zanpakuto, not the other way around. Use that power and make something of it."

Make something of it…

I suddenly had an idea of what to do with myself. I gripped my zanpakuto's hilt and put a purpose to the power I had churning inside me. Captain Hitsugaya stepped back from me as I smiled up at him. Turning away from him I reached out and snatched a few of the golden flecks that were hovering around me. They glowed like fireflies in my hand as I forced my will into them, turning them to liquid. Looking around I gathered all the little flecks in the air with my mind's eye and pulled them to me. As they touched my shihakusho they joined and melted into a liquid that spread over my uniform. I created more, pulling reishi from some of the downed trees until my entire body was covered in gold.

Thinking of my zanpakuto, I shaped the gold into armor. Black layered plates that were lined with gold formed over my thighs. Held in place by golden chain links, they hung from a black and gold mesh obi that encircled my waist. More black armor lined in gold formed across my sword arm's shoulder, the plates of the pauldron forming with elegantly curved edges and vine like designs etched into the surface. A breast plate emerged from under the shoulder pauldron to sweep over my breast in a rounded triangle like an archer's breast plate. The metal was thin, but just as decorative as the shoulder pauldron in its black metal lined with gold. An arm guard formed on my sword arm, shaping to cover the back of my hand in metal plates. Everything was held together by fine golden chains that wove around my body in delicate curves.

When I felt that everything was as it was meant to be I looked down at myself, observing what I had done. The armor looked like it should have weighed a lot more than it felt like it did. It felt like I was wearing tinfoil, but I knew that it was much thicker than that. Just the plated armor over my thighs was at least a quarter inch thick. With the creation of the armor, my sense of things was limited to a few feet around me and I didn't have the urge to feel every inch of it.

'Maebure no Shukufuku, or The Herald's Blessing,' my zanpakuto said in my head. 'Learn to use it correctly and it will protect you, fight for you, and amplify your power. Fail to learn, and it will never be any more than just some fancy armor to weigh you down.'

'So, this is what you meant by She Who Evolves?' I asked her in my head.

'Your night isn't over yet, herald.'

I puzzled over her words for a long moment. What else could possibly change?

Shaking my head to clear the thought away, I turned back to Captain Hitsugaya. His eyes were all for the armor that I had donned as he looked me over. I tried not to blush as he gaze roamed over me. I knew he wasn't looking at me, but the armor… but still.

"This is the form of my shikai, Maebure no Shukufuku, according to my zanpakuto," I said as I spread my arms a bit to show it off.

"Armor never struck me as your shikai," he stated as he took a step towards me.

"She said that I need to learn to use it, or it will really be just armor. So, I guess I was using it incorrectly this whole time," I said with a small laugh. "Who knew."

"Can you still manipulate reishi?" He asked.

"I suppose so," I replied as I looked down to the ground. Spotting a stone I willed it to move with my mind's eye. It shifted to the side effortlessly, as if I'd moved it with my hand instead of my power.

"Perhaps this is a different part of your shikai then," he pondered aloud. "May I?" He asked, gesturing as if he wanted to touch my arm guard. I held my sword hand out to him, offering him a clear view of the armor. His hand slid up my wrist to grip my arm as he ran his other across the metal guard. His hand slid over the back of my hand and down the plates that covered my fingers until his touch came across the sensitive underside of my wrist, tickling the tender skin.

"Do that again and I might smack you on accident," I commented as I fought back a giggle. He didn't acknowledge my comment as he turned my arm over, his eyes gazing at my exposed skin. I hadn't noticed that the sleeve of my shihakusho had vanished until his fingers were teasing my exposed skin.

"Do you still have to hold your zanpakuto to maintain the armor?" He asked, his eyes coming up from my arm.

"She didn't say," I replied. "I can always find out though."

I pulled my arm from his grasp and slid my zanpakuto into her sheath. I held onto the handle for a long moment, not wanting to break the shikai. Slowly, I opened my hand and released her, leaving my zanpakuto to hang at my hip. For a long moment, nothing changed. The armor remained on my body, my vision was still sharper than it had ever been and I could still feel the presence of the reishi around me. Then, like dissolving into water, the armor dissipated into gold flecks that diminished in size until they disappeared entirely. My vision dulled and became normal again, though it felt way worse in comparison, and the extra sense that I had for my surroundings vanished. The only good thing about the transition out of my shikai was that my sleeve had reformed when the armor flitted away.

I almost frowned with disappointment, but managed to hold it back. Maybe sheathing my zanpakuto had ended my shikai instead of just dropping it. I hadn't really thought of the difference until just now.

Looking up to Captain Hitsugaya I shrugged. "I'll have to play with it."

His gaze lifted from my zanpakuto to meet mine as he hummed his agreeance. It was full dark now, the light of the waning full moon illuminating us between the remaining standing trees. The light as it fell on his face made his pale skin look ethereal as I recalled how he had looked with my other sight. He had been so beautiful that it had almost hurt to look at him and know I was so dull in comparison. I stepped to him, dropping my gaze as I reached out to take his hand in my own. I laced my fingers through his, relishing in the warmth of his hand against my own cool skin.

"Without your help, I don't think I would have ever gotten to this point with my zanpakuto. She said this, us, was all because of a turning point in my fate. But, without you I never would have made it past that turning point to where I am now." My gaze lifted and I met his once more. "Thank you, Toshiro."

His expression softened when I used his first name and his hand tightened around my own. He gripped my hand tighter and slid our hands behind my back, effectively pinning my arm between his and my body as he pulled me into him. His free hand slid into my hair as his lips pressed to mine in a gentle kiss. The kiss only lasted a moment before he raised his head just enough to part our lips.

"You are a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for," he murmured.

"Maybe, but I'm not very good at figuring things out," I said shaking my head.

"It comes with experience," he said as he kissed me lightly. "Most of my abilities came naturally to me, but figuring out the control came easier with advice from my captain at the time."

"Isshin Shiba?" I asked, recalling the name of the former Squad 10 Captain.

"Yes."

I laughed at myself quietly. "You were once the 3rd seat, like I am now. Weren't you?"

He hummed his agreeance. I started to ask him another question, but his mouth covered mine. I lost the thoughts I had as he conquered my mouth, making my body hot with the fierceness of his lips and tongue. It was like he had to feel every part of my mouth with his own and claim it, and I was helpless to stop him… not that I wanted to. My free hand gripped his haori, trying to pull my body tighter to his as he leaned my body backwards just enough to step me off balance. When he finally released my lips, I was panting as butterflies flew rampant in my stomach and chest. My heart was pounding in my ears as I tried to remember up from down. All I could think of was the searing kiss we had just shared, and thinking of it made my body shudder.

When I finally had enough sense, I looked up to him. He was breathing a little heavily, but a very satisfied expression made his aquamarine eyes smolder smugly. "If you kiss me like that again, I'm going start expecting it every time you hold me."

He chuckled as he kissed me again, banishing all thought until all I could think of was his mouth on mine and his body pressed so tightly to mine. I couldn't help but to moan as he bit lightly on my bottom lip, teasing me relentlessly. The sound seemed to trigger something in him and suddenly I had my back pressed against a tree, his body pinning me in place.

A groan rumbled in his throat and he pulled back from me, his hand that had been tangled in my hair shifting to rest against the bark beside my head. When I opened my eyes his gaze was studying me like I had done something that confused him.

"What are you doing to me, Ria Yamamoto?" He crooned.

"I could ask you the same thing, Toshiro." I replied breathily. "I was a lady two weeks ago," I said with a light laugh. "Now all I can do is think about the way you make me feel."

He let out a long sigh, his warm breath caressing my cheeks. "We should go back. Before we get ourselves into trouble." He wasn't referring to actually getting in trouble. A blush heated my cheeks as thoughts of how we could 'get ourselves into trouble' ran through my head.

He kissed my forehead before saying, "You have got to stop blushing like that."

"I can't help it," I replied. "My sister says I'm an open book when I actually bother thinking."

"I would have to disagree," he said softly. "Until recently, I had no idea what was going through your head."

"I guess," I said quietly. "I'll just have to be more open with you."

"And I, you."

He rested his forehead against mine and inhaled deeply. "Let's get going. Rangiku will never let us hear the end of it if we are too late." He pulled our hands from behind my back and gently tugged me away from tree, leading us back towards the Seireitei.


	9. She Who Suffers

**Seer**

**She Who Suffers**

Getting ready in the morning with Rangiku around was like entering a beauty parlor with an overzealous hair dresser. I didn't need my hair flat ironed or curled. I didn't even need hair spray with how smooth my locks normally were. I just needed my damn ribbon and I was good to go. All I wanted to do was put my hair in its normal chignon and leave. I was intending to go see my sister today to return the kimono and fetch my kanzashi, a task that I had intended to prolong so I could have a chat with her. I had planned on being done and back before I was due at work, but the way Rangiku was fussing over me was going to make me be late if I stayed to talk very long. But of course, I couldn't leave before she got her hands on me.

I was going to have to figure out a way to elude Rangiku tomorrow. I did have to admit that the way she had done my chignon looked fantastic, and the make-up she had forced me to don made my face glow. I really did look good, but I was going to go to work. If I didn't know better, I would have bet money that Rangiku was secretly working for Lady Rukia. Certainly, they were hatching some sort of match making plot. Rangiku always left us alone, which was uncharacteristic of her, or was constantly snooping around corners. Normally she was too lazy to put in the effort.

I let out a sigh as I approached the Ise Clan's manor. Rangiku had let me go alone to see my sister on the strict understanding that if I wasn't in her office in two hours that she would personally come and let my sister know what I had been up to. That alone was enough of a motivator to be back to work well before that. I didn't need Rangiku to exaggerate what things were between Captain Hitsugaya any myself. In fact, I had every intention of underexaggerating our relationship. Acting the way I was… It just wasn't proper.

It wasn't like I cared what was proper when I was with him though. He made me feel at ease, like all the worries that went through my head every day didn't matter as much. It was rather funny to think that before now, seeing him meant I went through a check list in my head and panicked if he looked at me too long. He was still an intimidating guy, but when it was just the two of us…

I shook my head as I walked through the entry way into the Ise Manor. I was greeted by an attendant who I handed the boxed kimono to and sent her off to return my kimono to storage. Left to my own devices, I headed for the kitchen where I suspected my sister was. She had a small amount of spiritual pressure which allowed me to track her as I moved through the compound. I had once been told that our spiritual pressures felt very similar, but she had never done anything with her innate abilities like I did.

Pushing the door leading to the kitchen open, I glanced inside to see the kitchen completely empty except for one person. Her back was to me, her perfectly straight black hair pulled back into a loose braid that trailed down her back to end at the bottom of her pink obi. Her kimono was a light pink much like her obi with bursts of white and green breaking up the pink here and there. She was humming to herself as she fussed with whatever she was baking, swaying to the song in her head.

"Mio," I sang her name as I entered the kitchen.

"I thought that was you," she replied without turning. "I really should be mad at you for taking so long to come see me."

"But you're not, right?" I asked as I came up beside her and watched as she shaped pink colored frosting on top of a cookie.

She stopped what she was doing and looked over at me with a smirk, her rich chocolate eyes narrowing. "I should be."

I smiled and bumped her hip lightly with my own. "Love you too, sis."

Her smirk turned into a smile and she turned her gaze back down to her hands. "I have good news. Can you guess what it is?" She asked playfully.

"You've taken up baking as a hobby?" I guessed.

"No, but it does have something to do with these cookies," she said as she nodded towards the two dozen or so cookies she had already finished decorating. I walked around to her other side and looked down at the cookies, trying to figure out the clue. The cookies were all covered in light blue or pink frosting and embellished with frilly bits of shaped frosting that looked like bows and ruffles. I leaned over the cookies, looking straight down at them. They were all in the shape of socks and binkies like Humans used. It was an odd shape to be baking cookies in…

"No way," I said as I looked at her tummy.

"Yes way," she repeated, her smiled widening.

"Since when?" I asked as I turned to her. "You aren't even showing one little bit!"

"The midwife says three months. I just found out two days ago," she squeaked out with excitement. "I thought I was just getting fat!"

"Does Daichi know?"

"Why do you think I'm making these cookies?" She said as she placed the one she had been working on beside the others. "He comes home later today from a planning meeting at the Kyoraku Estate. I'm going to surprise him with these and see if he can put two and two together."

I laughed with her as we both imagined just how long it would take him to figure it out. They had been trying for children since before I knew how they were made. After 40 or so years, I had thought they had given up. Apparently not.

"I have something I'd like to talk to you about," I said, changing the subject.

Her expression dropped. "Don't tell me you're pregnant too!"

"No!" I quickly objected. "Why on earth would you think that?"

"Well, that's the subject we were on." She said with a sigh. "Who knows what those soul reapers get into these days in the Human World. I hear stories all the time about how Humans act and dress." She made a disgusted face which caused me to laugh.

"It's nothing like that," I assured her.

"Let me box these up, then we can talk."

It took Mio only a few minutes to have an elegantly carved box filled with the delicate cookies. When we left the kitchen some of the staff seemed to appear from nowhere and head into the abandoned room. I had to laugh to myself as I realized she had kicked them all out so she could work in privacy. With Lady Nanao mostly staying in her house at the barracks, my sister ran the manor in her stead. It was clear that no one questioned her authority, at least not in her presence.

We stopped in her room only long enough for her to retrieve my kanzashi from her vanity. She placed it in my hair with practiced ease before leading us out to a covered patio area. Taking a seat, she waved off an attendant that had started heading our way and focused her attention on me. Her face was still glowing with happiness as she gazed at me, but her expression was blank and waiting.

I took in a slow breath. I could tell she was expecting me to give her bad news of some sort. How she would take the conversation though… I really didn't know.

"When you released me from my obligations to marry, what did you intend for me to do in that aspect?" I asked her, trying not to put any of my own feelings into my words.

She tilted her head to one side as she observed me. "I did not have any intentions for you. From what I am led to believe by Lady Nanao's expressions of her work requirements, most soul reapers do not have the luxury of time. I mean this in regards to raising a family or being available to spend much time away from your barracks."

I thought over her words for a moment. "From my understanding, Lady Nanao serves the Kyoraku family much in the sense that Daichi does. The only difference being that she is directly working for Head Captain Kyoraku. I, on the other hand, have a much different work load from hers."

She raised an eyebrow. "There must be a reason that you wanted to discuss this in particular."

"Yes," I said turning my gaze out onto the yard. "I understand that I am no longer obligated to an arranged marriage. I also understand that despite not having the Ise Clan's name, I am considered to be representing them by the elders. What is an acceptable match for someone like me?"

"Anyone," she responded simply.

I looked back to her, a little surprised by her answer. "What?"

"We are from the Rukon district, Ria. I married Daichi despite that. Even the head of the Kuchiki Clan married a woman from the Rukon district years ago. Most prominent families promote marrying for advantageous reasons, which is what you had once been obligated to do. But, you've been released. It wasn't just me who made the decision. It was Lady Nanao who gave her blessing on the decision as well." Mio reached out and took my hand. "It is her firm belief that if you really love someone, then something as silly as status shouldn't stop you from being together."

I gave her a relaxed smile and squeezed her hand. "Thank you."

"But," she said sharply. "Whoever has caught your eye better not be some lazy slob. I won't allow you to marry some fat moocher who just wants to use you for your name. Yamamoto's are better than that!"

I tried to apply her words to Captain Hitsugaya in my head, but ended up laughing at the resulting mental image. "I don't think you will ever have to worry about that."

"Oh really?" She asked as she released my hand and clasped her own delicately in her lap. "Who is he?"

I laughed nervously. "He's just someone I work with. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to say anything unless it becomes more serious."

"Oh, it must be someone that out ranks you if you're talking like that."

"Mio," I started to object, but she continued.

"There's several male lieutenants in the 13 Court Guard Squads. You wouldn't be worried if it was Marechiyo Omaeda because of his family's wealth, so it's not him." She said as she ticked off a finger. "It's not Shuhei Hisagi. You would have never gone for him with those tattoos all over his face." She gestured at her cheek while making a funny expression.

"Sis, it's not one of the lieutenants." I quickly said. "I hardly ever see people from other squads as it is."

"So, it's someone in your squad!" She cheered. "And everyone but your lieutenant is a man. Let's see, there's that pretty boy Amagi."

"No," I said with a huff.

"What about your 5th seat? Ono something,"

"Would you quit guessing?" I said in annoyance.

"No," She replied curtly. "Eventually you're going to give it away. I just have to say their name, and I know most of their names thanks to you."

"You are a horrible sister," I said grumpily.

"You could just tell me," she teased.

"Or you could quit being nosy," I shot back.

"Nope, being nosy is in the big sister rule book," she said with a big smile. "Now let me think, who else is in your squad…"

I heaved in a large sigh and let it out as I started to get to my feet. "That's it, I'm leaving before you can torment me anymore."

"Toshiro Hitsugaya," she said abruptly.

I tripped over my own feet and almost face planted before I caught myself. "Mio," I growled out as I turned to look at her.

The level of smug that she expressed in her grin was sickening.

"I thought so," She said.

I sat back down and glared at her. "You knew, didn't you?"

"Yep."

I hung my head in defeat. "Let me guess, you heard from Lady Nanao and she heard it from Lieutenant Rangiku."

"Most likely," she said, her expression somehow becoming even more smug. "They are both part of the Soul Reaper Women's Association."

I hung my head in defeat. I should have known…

"Aw, don't look so put out little sis," Mio encouraged. "I was going to find out eventually."

"I'm more worried about what Rangiku has been saying," I grumbled.

"From my understanding, she only made it a point to tell Lady Nanao. She's probably trying to help you out."

"That's not helping," I said as I lifted my head.

"Actually, it is. Now it won't be a surprise to Lady Nanao if something more develops between the two of you and you end up having to discuss the matter with her. You should have seen her expression the first time I met her. It was terrifying," she said with a small laugh.

I groaned. "I hadn't even thought about that."

"Yes, whoever you do decide to marry will have to ask her for permission. Have fun with that," she teased.

"I wasn't even thinking marriage when I came here. There's just something between us, and I didn't want to have my hopes crushed if it became something more."

"It's just 'something'?" She asked with a raised brow. "What does that 'something' entail?"

I blushed as I recalled our interaction from the night before. "I don't really know how to explain it," I said softly. "He's just there for me, and every time he saves me from some impending doom it warms my heart. He's helped me to grow, not just as a soul reaper, but as a person and I trust him more than I've ever let myself trust someone before." I looked down to my hands and laughed at myself. "Even when I made a bumbling fool of myself and ran, he chased me down, threw me over his shoulder and talked some sense into me."

"Oh my," Mio said with a sigh. "I sure hope he's even half as much in love with you, as you are him."

"You don't understand, Mio. It's hard to explain things without causing you worry, but he's saved me from my own foolishness. My zanpakuto said that it was fate that is drawing us together," I said as I looked back up to my sister. "I'm starting to believe her."

Mio watched my face for a long moment, her own expression softening as she studied me. After a moment, she seemed to relax and let her gaze drop to her hands. "When you've decided how serious this relationship between the two of you is, I want to meet him. Lady Nanao may know his character, but I will not give up my little sister to a stranger."

I smiled and shuffled over to give her a hug. "If the time comes, I promise I will."

She patted my arm in a comforting gesture, "Yeah, yeah. Don't you have work or something to get to?"

I pulled away from her and nodded, "Yeah, Lieutenant Rangiku is expecting me back soon. I need to give her a piece of my mind anyway."

"I'll walk you out then," she said as she stood. I followed her and we headed for the entrance to the manor.

"You'll have to tell me how long it takes for Daichi to get the cookie hint," I said lightly.

"That means you'll have to come back and visit soon," she chastised.

"I'll do my best," I replied.

As we rounded the corner leading to the manor entrance I spotted a familiar face waiting at the gateway. Amagi Kyrouni stood just off the manor's grounds, his gaze wandering curiously over the front of the manor. When he spotted us he waved enthusiastically. I gave him a smile before I glanced over at my sister.

"Amagi?" She asked. I nodded. She vaguely knew what a few of the officers looked like, and not many people had green hair and daffodil yellow eyes.

"He's probably got some orders for me or something," I said with a shrug. "I'll try to make it back to see you next week."

We said our good-byes and I headed for Amagi who was waiting patiently outside the gateway. "You know," he started to say. "I knew you belonged to the Ise Clan, but I guess I just didn't comprehend what that meant."

"It really means nothing," I said with an embarrassed laugh.

"Most of us in the squad are from the Rukon District."

I interrupted him before he could continue. "So am I, Amagi. I was just another person before I became a soul reaper." I gave him a cheerful smile to end the conversation.

He smiled back at me. "Right, sorry."

"Its fine. Why did you come all the way out here for me though?" I asked him as I started walking away from the Ise Manor. He hesitated for a moment before he caught up to me and started walking at my side.

"Lieutenant Matsumoto has a meeting for the Soul Reaper Women's Association today and Captain Hitsugaya is at a meeting with the Head Captain this morning. She wanted me to let you know and to accompany you back to the barracks."

"Ah," I murmured. "I hope I'm not interrupting your other duties for the day."

"Not at all," he quickly replied. "My combat team is training with the 8th combat team today. When Sanado was injured during the fight was that Adjuchas their entire team forgot protocol and scattered. We're putting them through some drills so it doesn't happen again. But that leaves me with nothing to do today, besides paperwork of course."

"Of course," I said with a small laugh. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

He shook his head. "No, I was headed to the dining hall when Lieutenant Matsumoto found me."

"Good, let's eat before we go back to work!" I cheered. "Come on." I flash stepped away, going slower than normal so that he could keep up with me.

We arrived at the dining hall after several minutes. The place was mostly empty since most of the squad members were already at work for the day. Quickly getting our food we sat down at a table by the bay of windows and began eating.

"Yamamoto," Amagi started to say. "Lieutenant Matsumoto said something strange to me when she sent me to get you. Do you mind if I ask you what she meant by it?"

I quirked my eyebrow at him as I paused a bite of fried egg that was on its way to my mouth. "I don't mind."

He set his bowl down and looked me straight in the eye. "Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"Trouble?" I asked as I returned the egg to my dish. "What do you mean by that?"

"Are you in danger from something here in the Soul Society? Lieutenant Matsumoto didn't say it exactly, but she implied that something might happen to you." He paused for a moment, but continued. "I know you've been in and out of Squad 4's infirmary a lot lately, so I put two and two together."

I nodded. "You could say that. I've never been very combat oriented when it comes to my zanpakuto's abilities. I've always been more of a useful tool than anything." I let out a sigh. "She told you to look after me while they were gone, didn't she?"

"It was implied," he said with a slight nod.

"You're a lot better trained in combat than I am, Amagi. But, even knowing that I'm sorry that you have to look out for me. It really should be the other way around with me out ranking you and all."

"Its fine Yamamoto," Amagi said with a brilliant smile. "You're stronger than me in a lot of other ways. Besides, I could never do the lieutenant's paper work as well as you can."

We laughed and went back to eating. Being around Amagi was always so relaxing. It was just his personality. He made everyone around him feel at ease, and everyone knew it. People just gravitated towards him because he was such an easy-going guy. When we talked, everything I said came out easily instead of in my typical formal speech. It was a refreshing change of pace…

"Amagi, now that we are back at the barracks you can go back to work." I said as we got up from the table.

"Are you sure? I know Lieutenant Matsumoto only ordered me to escort you back, but I don't mind sticking around," he offered as we headed for the door.

"Its fine. I'm just going back to my room for a bit. I'll be in the office shortly." I assured him.

"Alright," he said with a nod.

We parted ways at the door as I headed for the barracks and he for the offices. I didn't bother wasting time walking and flash stepped up to the fourth floor of the barracks. I hesitated at the door to my room, my hand resting on the door handle. I hadn't been back to my room since that man had ambushed me a few nights ago. Since that flash back I had in the training area, I hadn't thought about what had happened here. There'd always been something, or someone, to distract me and keep my mind elsewhere. Standing here with my hand on the door was like replaying the memories.

Steeling myself, I pushed the door open and gazed in. I couldn't let myself become so wrapped up in what had happened or I'd never be normal again. The far side of the room looked like it had been scorched briefly by fire, the burn patterns having only eaten away at spots in the surfaces. The floor and several spots around the room looked water stained, most likely from Hyorinmaru's melted ice. Most of the furniture in the room was still intact, but damaged here and there from the brief fight that had occurred between Captain Hitsugaya and my attacker.

Reaching behind me I slid the door to my room closed and slid my zanpakuto from her sheath with the other. Perhaps releasing my shikai here wasn't the best idea. There were so many things that could go wrong if I couldn't control myself.

"Tankyu no Unmei," I said as I lifted her blade so I could see my reflection. "Maebure no Shukufuku."

My zanpakuto's image appeared in the place of my reflection. Power coursed through me from my zanpakuto, nearly taking me to my knees. I fought with the power, forcing it to stay contained within a small perimeter of my body. Golden flecks danced around me as I pushed for the power to take a physical shape and to become my armor. Slowly the golden flecks condensed and began to form the arm guard. The power pulsed and resisted me as I willed it to take shape. After several minutes of struggling with the power, the final piece of my armor formed and the power seemed to dull.

'Herald,' Tankyu no Unmei's voice sang in my head.

'Zanpakuto,' I replied as I turned about the room, examining exactly what needed to be done. My eyesight was sharp again, like I had been half blind before I activated my shikai. I could feel the ground underneath my feet as I moved, the particles of reishi registering in my head. I pushed the unneeded information to the side and tried to focus on what needed to be fixed. The scorch marks, the water damage, the splintered wood, the damaged fabric… I compiled a mental list of everything that needed to be done.

'She who suffers,' my zanpakuto's voice rang through my mind.

Her words made me hesitate for only a moment before I resumed my train of thought and started pushing power at the room. "That's a rather dark prediction," I mumbled as I watched the scorch marks on the wall vanish in a wisp of golden reishi. I felt oddly disconnected from myself emotionally. I was just too busy thinking about everything that needed to be done to bother with, well, being bothered.

'I could give you a lesser name if you prefer,' she taunted.

"One of those thousand names that have only a fraction to do with my actual prediction?" I asked her as I turned my gaze to watch the water stains melt from the floor in a sheen of gold.

'You assume correctly,' she replied. I could just hear the smirk in her voice.

"Well then," I said as I turned to my desk and focused on mending the damage that had been done to it. "Do I get any suggestions for how to handle my day?"

'I would recommend not dropping your shikai for some time,' she responded after a moment.

"Why?" I asked her as I closed my eyes and searched with my mind's eye for any other damage I had missed.

'You take too long to reign in our shikai,' she responded. 'Leaving it run will not change your fate, but it will, perhaps, ease the burden.'

"How long can I maintain shikai now?" I asked.

'Do you feel tired?' she responded.

"No, not at all."

'When you feel as though you will hit your limit, push for more. It is the only way you will grow.'

"Right," I mumbled. I turned my gaze to the closet doors and pulled them open with a thought. Inside, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. My koto had been burned but otherwise was intact, the few kimonos I kept in my room were only slightly ruined, but the rest of the items seemed to have made it through without much damage done to them. I shifted through the items in my head and pulled the ones that needed repair, laying them out across the floor of my room.

I took to the fabrics first. Repairing the holes in the silk of my kimonos was easy so as soon as it was done I folded them in my mind's eye and placed them on top of my desk so I could box them later. Turning to my koto I pull its stands from the closet and set it up like I was going to play. I sat down beside it and ran my hand across the damaged wood. Most of the strings had been burned and had snapped, the varnish across the wood melted in places while in others the explosion had just warped the surface.

I pressed my hand to the wood and closed my eyes. I had never used my shikai on my koto before. Fixing things required an understanding of an object, but also knowledge of how it had originally worked. I couldn't just turn back time, but based off patterns in a substance I could take a pretty good guess as how it would go back together. Or, I could remake the object entirely like I often did with concrete. It really just depending on what I was doing, and now with this extra power, it didn't seem to bother me to do things

Pushing power through the instrument I repaired the wood, then the varnish and finally the strings. It took me longer than everything else had because I was so focused on getting it right. Unlike a wall, my koto had to be the perfect shape or it would never sound right.

The door to my room slid open with a heavy slap against the wall. I looked up, startled out of my focus on my koto. Captain Hitsugaya stood in the door way, his expression dropping from concerned to irritated. I just blinked at him for a moment before I turned back down to my koto, the feeling of disconnection between my head and what I should have been feeling making itself obvious. But, these strings just weren't giving me the right tension…

"What are you doing exerting so much spiritual energy in the middle of the barracks?" He asked in a demanding tone.

I didn't answer him, his words not really registering in my head, and continued to fuss over my koto.

I felt him walk across the room to stand on the other side of my koto, but I didn't look up as I started placing the bridges under my strings. It was difficult with my zanpakuto still in my hand. My sword hand was my main hand, the one I performed most of my strokes with. Without the use of my fingers and the worry of scratching the varnish I only got two in place before I had to stop.

"Ria," he said quietly.

"Captain," I responded in a similar voice as I looked around the room. I could retune my koto later. I needed to finish fixing things now before whatever suffering event occurred to ruin my day. There was so much to do… I shook my head. No, there wasn't anything left to do. I'd fixed everything in the room. I needed to move on. There was so much more that I could do with all this power.

He walked around my koto and knelt beside me. His hand pressed to my cheek as my eyes wandered in their search for something else that I needed to do. He turned my head so I had no choice but to look up at him. Captured by his eyes my entire focus shifted away from my surroundings and entire on him. Everything that was him filled my head from the shades of blue and green in his eyes to the scent of the mountains that faintly dusted his skin.

"Drop your shikai," he ordered.

"Tankyu no Unmei said that I shouldn't," I replied slowly. Focusing on words was difficult when there was so much of him to focus on.

"Why?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. "What is your name?"

"She who suffers," I responded. My thoughts trailed off the conversation and I brought my hand up to cover his, relishing in the warmth of his skin.

"Do you trust me?" He asked, his expression softening.

"Of course," I replied automatically.

"Drop your shikai," he said once more, this time his words coming out in a coaxing tone. "You can release it again once you aren't consumed by your own power." His other hand slid down the exposed underside of my sword arm, trailing over the golden chains that held my arm guard in place. I shuddered at the touch as his fingers brushed over the underside of my wrist to close over my hand. He gently started to pull my zanpakuto from my grip and I had to struggle to not fight against him.

"I'm not consumed," I defended dully. "I don't want to drop it. I don't want to be She Who Suffers." My hand tightened on my zanpakuto's hilt as I thought back to my zanpakuto's words. I hadn't thought about it earlier, but with only Toshiro to focus on the emotions I had pushed aside were starting to leak in.

"You have half of the squad sweating bullets from how much spiritual energy you are pushing out. Drop your shikai," he murmured. "Trust me."

My eyes widened and I released my zanpakuto. Instantly my armor dissipated into the air and my shihakusho regained its sleeve. My sense of my surroundings and my eye sight faded back to normal and I slumped forward with the lack of power. I pulled my sword hand away from my zanpakuto as he rested it on the floor behind me.

"I didn't know," I mumbled as I looked down at my hand with shock. "I didn't mean to do that. I never used to draw attention when I used my shikai. I'm sorry." I balled my hand into a fist and clenched it until my knuckles popped. Toshiro's hand covered mine, drawing my attention back to him.

"You don't realize just how powerful you are, do you?" He asked.

"I've always had to pour my energy into my zanpakuto," I replied as I turned to look in his direction. I avoided his eyes. I was still too embarrassed about what I had done to meet this gaze. "Even after last night, I just didn't realize…" my voice trailed off leaving my thought unfinished.

"You need to train more before you use your shikai like you were once able to," he said.

I nodded. "I should go apologize to the squad. I didn't mean to do that to them." I moved to stand, pushing my koto away gently as I moved. I knew I was thinking irrationally, but I was freaked out at myself. I knew that alone I had a strong spiritual pressure, but working with my zanpakuto instead of against her... Why had I used my shikai here? Why hadn't it occurred to me that it would distress the weaker soul reapers nearby? I was on my feet and walking across the room when a hand on my arm stopped me.

"What would you say Ria?" Toshiro asked as he pulled me back. I backed up instead of turning into him, not wanting him to see my expression.

"I-I don't know," I stated as I stuttered over my words.

"There's nothing to say," he replied. "You are their 3rd seat, Ria. If your power overwhelms them enough that they are sweating with the strain of being near, it's a good thing."

"How is that a good thing?" I objected.

I felt him move to stand just behind me. His hand brushed mine and I felt the metal of my zanpakuto's hand guard brush my fingers. I slid my hand into the guard and covered his as he held the hilt. "What is the one thing that everyone who has come after you has said?"

I swallowed back the lump in my throat before I could answer him. "That I am weak."

"You aren't weak," he murmured. "You lack control, but you aren't weak." His hand pulled back from underneath mine, slowly allowing my hand to replace his on the grip before his grasp was gone. I sheathed her in a slow but practiced motion.

"And now the whole squad knows," I said to myself.

"You are always worried that you don't deserve the 3rd seat in the squad," he said as he moved to stand in front of me. "Do you understand now why you were promoted?"

"Not really," I said as I cast my eyes to the side. "I could understand if I had this level of power when I was promoted, but I didn't."

"You've always been-" he hesitated and turned to face the door before he finished his sentence.

I opened myself to feeling spiritual pressures and heard myself gasp. It was him… I darted around Captain Hitsugaya and flash stepped out of my room and towards the offices. It was the stealth force guy's spiritual pressure, I just knew it. What was he doing here? Why was he in the office building? I felt more than saw Captain Hitsugaya as he passed me, darting into the building just before me. An explosion rocked the building as I stopped in the second-floor hallway and I watched as two bodies shot through a hole in the exterior wall.

I ran over to the hole in the wall and looked down to where I felt Captain Hitsugaya's and the stealth force guy's spiritual pressures. With all the dust from the explosion I couldn't see more than their general figures on the ground. I started to move to follow, but Captain Hitsugaya's voice cut through air.

"Ria help the others," he ordered.

I turned to look at the room and had to pause and let my eyes make sense of the mess. The office that I shared with several of the other officers was in shambles. Desks were over turned, papers and boxes strewn about the room in a scattered mess. I carefully moved into the room as I looked around for the other people that had been referred to. Walking into the room I started turning over desks until I spotted green hair in the corner.

Quickly moving to Amagi I flipped a chair that had been laying on top of him over and knelt at his side. I rolled him over onto his back and checked him for any wounds. He appeared to be unconscious, but otherwise I didn't see any wounds on him. I left him lying on the floor as I went to inspect the rest of the room. I found another squad member who I didn't recognize curled up in the corner who was also unconscious, so I pulled him from his spot to lay beside Amagi.

"What's going on?" someone called from the destroyed door way. I turned and saw several other squad members entering the room.

"Get these guys out of here," I said motioning to the two on the ground. I left them to do their thing as I rushed back to the hole in the exterior wall. They were fighting up in the air, zanpakuto and sword clashing as they attacked one another. I bit my lip as I debated on what I should do. My name could mean so many different things. There was no avoiding whatever was going to happen, but maybe I could at least prepare myself. I knew Captain Hitsugaya wouldn't want me to get involved in his fight, so staying down here was my best option.

"Amagi, what are you doing?" I heard one of the squad members say from the office.

"Repeat, Hanayume!" Amagi's voice bellowed. I turned, shocked that he had suddenly released his zanpakuto's shikai. He had just been out cold. Surprised shouts came from the room as I darted through the door. Pain flashed through my lower abdomen as the blade of a zanpakuto sank into my body. I blinked dumbly as I stared into grey eyes that didn't belong on Amagi's face.

"Amagi?" I asked in surprise. His expression lightened and he beamed at me as he pulled his zanpakuto from my body.

"I got you," he said, his smile widening into a grin. The wound was cold with the touch of his sword. I knew what he had done, or whatever had possessed him. His zanpakuto was a plant based one. He specialized in pollens and substances that occurred naturally in the world. Typically, he used poison in the air to slowly wither away his opponent's strength, but Repeat was another part of his shikai. Another, worse, version.

I watched as he lifted his sword, prepping for another strike. I reacted this time, pulling my own zanpakuto from her sheath and jumping back from him. I pressed my free hand into my stomach, feeling the puncture in my gut as I put pressure on the wound. Damn, it hurt. It was like an odd burning sensation was spreading from where he had stabbed me and through my body. The pain was that spready was slowly followed by an odd numb sensation that was robbing me of control over my muscles.

"Maebure no Shukufuku, Tankyu no Unmei!" I called to my zanpakuto. Power surged through me, dulling the burn as my armor began to form. He didn't wait for me to finish donning my armor, instead he launched at me with a flurry of strikes. I tried to block his attacks with my zanpakuto, but he ended up catching me on my unarmed side several times before I had to retreat. I darted through the hole in the building and flash stepped into the court yard. I landed on my feet, but quickly lost my footing and was forced down to my knees.

"Feeling it yet, Yamamoto?" Amagi asked as he jumped down from the second floor to land several feet away.

I clenched my teeth as I tried to focus on bringing my armor into its full physical form. I could feel it, the hallucinogen that coated his zanpakuto. It was working through my body just as fast as my heart could beat. If he had only managed the small cuts that parted my skin on my left arm I wouldn't have been worried about the effects, but he had nearly run his zanpakuto through me. I had seen him take down hollows that were ten times my size with this attack. There was no way that I could avoid suffering the same disorienting effects.

"No way," I lied as my armor closed over my breasts in completion. I came to my feet, but remained hunched over my wound. The obi of my armor had covered the wound, but I still held my hand over the injury, applying pressure as best I could despite the armor.

"What the hell are you doing Kyrouni?" Captain Hitsugaya barked as he clashed swords with the stealth force man. Amagi's head turned to look at him, giving him the same sadistic smile I had seen before on another man's face.

"Killing your 3rd seat, Captain," he replied.

I suddenly couldn't breathe as pain seized my chest. I knew it wasn't real. It was Amagi's shikai that was making me relive the pain. Hanayume's Repeat, the ability to make the target replay events in their life. On its own it was just something that made someone get lost in their thoughts, but he used it like a weapon to bring back the worst experiences that someone had gone through. I needed to make provisions to protect myself while I could still see what was real and not memories.

"Hyoryu Senbi!" Captain Hitsugaya shouted just before a wall of ice slammed down between Amagi and I. I looked up to where he stood in the air thirty or so feet up. He was looking down at us from the corner of his eye, his attention still focused on the stealth force man.

"Hado #54. Haien!" The stealth force man shouted abruptly.

Captain Hitsugaya didn't hesitate as a ball of purple energy shot towards him. He barely even moved when a wall of ice formed between him, causing the blast to crash into the ice and explode into a mass of red and orange flames on the other side.

Despite the distance between the flames and myself, I could feel the heat blast across my face. It momentarily snapped me out of the phantom pain I had been feeling and I used the opportunity to turn my own shikai on myself. I pulled reishi from ground beneath me and turned them into golden flecks as they touched my skin. I visualized the edges of my wound pulling together and being sealed by the golden bits of reishi and pushed my power at making it happen. I tried to keep from crying out as the golden reishi pulled at my wound, forcing the hole in my body to knit together.

Once the pain dulled to a pounding roar in my head I stood straight, wincing only slightly as my skin pulled against the temporary bandage. I let my hand drop from cradling my stomach as I stared at Amagi through the ice that separated us. Even with the enhancement my shikai had done to my senses, my vision was starting to become disoriented from his zanpakuto's drug. Despite that I could clearly make out the vicious smile that didn't belong on Amagi's face. Those foreign grey eyes that looked back at me were so similar to that man's on the festival night…

"You're not Amagi, are you?" I shouted so my voice would reach around the wall between us.

"Of course I am, Yamamoto," he seemed to tease as he over emphasized every syllable of my name. He flicked his zanpakuto sending a wave of mist from the edge of his blade that spread to cover his entire side of the wall. I knew it was some sort of pollen that he was whipping up, but what variety I couldn't tell. I watched as the mist grew until it had filled the area like a cup and began to leak over the top of the wall.

Stepping back, I pulled at the ground with my mind's eye as I made the motion to pull a hood over my head. The ground came up and over me, forming a room much like I had used during my first encounter with the stealth force man. This time though, I turned everything into pure reishi as I formed it. I had the power now. I didn't have to resort to reinforcing materials. I turned the room into the same armor that covered my body, forcing it to remain clear like a barrier so that I could see everything around me. I left no gap in my room, ensuring that I had completely sealed myself inside.

Just as the mist created by Amagi's zanpakuto came in contact with my walls Amagi appeared only a few feet away from my room. He reached out and tapped on the wall, his smile widening with each touch. "Soul Reapers are so much tastier," he said as he ran his finger over the surface of the wall.

The world seemed to buck under me as I was thrown back into a memory. I felt myself fall to my hands and knees, but in my head I was standing in a grouping of trees in the Human World. A small canine like hollow smiled at me with a toothy grin.

I was frozen to my spot, unable to move from the fear that paralyzed me. I needed to move. I needed to run. Why weren't my feet moving?

"Scared little soul reaper!" I heard Amagi shout, but it was like it had come from the hollow's mouth. I startled and began to run, but I crashed into something. I panicked, pushing at the wall with my hands until I saw my zanpakuto in my hand. When had I drawn her?

Pain shot through my chest as the hollow jumped on my back. I didn't have to look to know it had pierced my chest, stealing the air from my lungs. I fell to my knees as the pain rode me to the ground, my hand on the unseen wall the only thing from keeping me falling completely to the ground.

"Drop your zanpakuto Ria," I heard Amagi coax. "Drop it and I'll make the pain go away."

I shook my head as I gripped her hilt even tighter. The chains that kept my arm guard in place dug into my hand as I clenched her as tightly as I could. It wasn't real… None of it was real… Amagi wasn't Amagi. I couldn't listen to him.

"No," I growled out. My vision seemed to clear as I rejected what was happening. It wasn't real, it was all in my head. The phantom pain was still there, but slowly I could breathe easier. I pushed against the wall I was using for balance and clambered back to my feet.

"It's amusing that you're trying to fight back."

My mind snapped back into another place. My body was frozen with a bakudo, that man's face so close to mine as he snapped cold metal manacles around my wrists. The same smile that had been on Amagi's face flashed at me, those eyes sickly lit with a spark of crazy. But… this memory was wrong. My arms weren't trapped above me and my spiritual pressure was flowing through me without restraint. The sensations were all wrong.

"I just sealed your spiritual pressure. Now you can't fight back." His voice was wrong. It was Amagi's voice, not that mans… When his mouth crashed into mine I didn't feel the bite of his teeth cutting into my lip. I felt the gentle kiss that had over ridden the sense memory. The taste of the mountains on my tongue filled me with warmth instead of the fear that I knew had been intended.

I broke free from the memory with the knowledge that I had always been saved. No matter how bad my situations had gotten, he had always been there to save me. Anything that Amagi could say to bring of a memory always ended with him. He couldn't control me with fear, because no matter what happened I trusted Toshiro to be there until I was strong enough to be there for myself.

Finding a moment where I wasn't plagued by a memory, I spread my senses out. I let my mind become filled with information, no matter how irrelevant. I needed to become busy minded so these memories wouldn't affect me. I focused on the pollen in the air, grabbing each tiny bit with my mind's eye and forcing it down to the ground. Amagi didn't seem to notice what I was doing, his attention focused wholly on me.

"I will ruin you!" He cheered, trying to draw upon more of my memories.

His words didn't touch me. There was too much information to process for the twinge of emotions I had shoved into a corner to bother me. I turned to Amagi as I gathered my power to myself and pushed my emotions to the side. He couldn't control me. Before Amagi could realize that his control over me had failed I forced my room to break into portions of walls and the ceiling. He stumbled back as the wall between him shuttered with the force I had used.

"What the hell?" he exclaimed.

"Give me back my friend," I demanded as I slammed the walls down around him. He started to move as if to jump out of the box I was putting him in, but I slammed the ceiling down on the walls before he could move, trapping him inside. He let out a roaring scream as he whipped his zanpakuto around, releasing more substance into the air. The ground beneath him seemed to writhe as vegetation started to form in the dirt. Understanding that he was trying to root his way out I ate away at the reishi the composed the growing plants until the inside of the room was filled with golden flecks. With a small gesture of my hand I turned it into a floor for the room, cutting off his access to soil to grow his plants.

"You bitch!" He shouted as he turned to me. "I'm going to kill you Yamamoto. You'll wish you had never fought back with the torment I will cause you!" His fists slammed into the wall that separated us, his crazy eyes enriched with rage as he glared at me. "They won't recognize your corpse after I'm done with you."

"Shut up," I said as I stared blankly into his enraged face. I silenced the room, thickening the surface until his shouts were completely unheard with a push of power. He appeared to scream at me as he slammed his fists over and over into the wall, his knuckles splitting with the force. I gave him my back, trusting in my zanpakuto's power to keep him safely contained.

Captain Hitsugaya was descending from where he had been standing in the air when my eyes found him. His eyes were on me, but his attention seemed to be elsewhere as he walked towards me.

"Did he run?" I asked in a flat voice.

"Yes," he responded as his attention seemed to come back to his eyes. "His spiritual pressure has completely vanished."

I nodded in understanding. I closed my eyes and let my senses spread out for a moment, searching for his spiritual pressure on my own. I didn't feel anything but Amagi's presence, but even that felt wrong now that I could pay attention. Normally Amagi's spiritual pressure felt like warm rays of sunlight, but right now it felt tainted and dark. I pulled my senses back, wincing as my power fought with me.

"Will this box you've created remain if you drop your shikai?" he asked as I opened my eyes.

I turned to look at the container I had trapped Amagi in. "Yes. It's just reishi I reformed. He's not strong enough to break it."

He hummed his understanding.

Voices encroached on us from the surrounding buildings as squad members emerged from surrounding buildings. I had known that this all happened in the middle of the squad's grounds, but I hadn't associated the squad with our fight. The small corner I had shoved my emotions seeped back into my head as worry for them came to the forefront of my mind. I was thrown back into a memory for only a moment before I shook it off.

"Ria?" I heard Captain Hitsugaya ask from beside me.

"I'm fine," I quickly said. "Amagi's shikai is still messing with my head."

"Those cuts shouldn't have-" He cut himself off when I turned to fully face him, and held up my free hand that was still slick with my blood.

"He surprised me," I stated. "I temporarily sealed the wound, so I am fine for now. I don't know what happened to the other squad members in the room though. I was a bit distracted."

"Stay here," he said just before he turned and moved towards the squad members who were coming into the area. I watched his back as he gave out orders, sending groups of people in different directions. I felt my mind slipping into another memory and tried to catch myself, but ended up consumed by the feeling of fabric pressed to my cheek as I nuzzled my nose into his shihakusho. I closed my eyes as I realized what memory I had been pulled into. I held onto the memory as I slowly sheathed my zanpakuto, my hand slipping from her hilt as phantom rain drops slid down my skin. The dampness of his haori as the rain soaked into his back, my back as it pressed into the pillar, his hands as they held me so securely but gently. I knew that the memory was only a few moments in time, but standing here it felt like an eternity. But, I decided, I wouldn't mind this sort of suffering if it lasted forever.

'You're an idiot,' my zanpakuto's voice echoed through my head. I laughed quietly to myself.

"I suppose I am," I mumbled.

"You're what?" Captain Hitsugaya's voice said from in front of me. I almost didn't realize it wasn't part of the memory as I slowly opened my eyes. The memory lingered as I looked up to him. I laughed to myself as I started to step into him, but I caught myself as I suddenly remembered where we were. I had never so openly interacted with him in an informal manner in front of the squad. Starting now of all times seemed like a bad idea.

"Sorry," I said softly as I backed up. I shook my head, trying to clear my mind of the memory but failing to do more than disorient myself. "No shikai to push the hallucinogen back."

"Ono is handling things here until I get back," he said as he moved to my side. In one swift motion I was off my feet and cradled against his chest. "You need to sleep off the effects of Kyrouni's shikai."

I nodded as I relaxed into his grip. Who was I to argue with him if he wanted to pick me up. The feeling just pulled me into more flashes of memories which brought an involuntary smile to my lips. "You sure do pick me up a lot," I said with a laugh. I felt him move with a flash step and hid my face against his shoulder. "A girl could get used to this sort of treatment," I joked into his shoulder.

"You are quiet the handful," he commented as he transitioned from his flash step to walking.

"Only because you're there to save me," I teased. "Just imagine, if you hadn't saved me back in the Human World, you wouldn't have to put up with me now." I winced as the memories came back in a flash of pain that had me involuntarily curling in on myself.

"Think about something else Ria," He said as he pushed a door open with his foot.

"I know," I grumbled as I shuddered with the effort of forcing my body to relax. He knelt and set me down on my feet in Rangiku's spare room as I worked to find something else to focus on. He moved around to stand in front of me and I looked up to him, searching in what I could see for something else to focus on.

"How badly are you injured?" he asked. His question momentarily distracted me and I turned my eyes down to my waist. Carefully I brought my hands the edges of the pierced fabric and pulled it apart, ripping the hole bigger until I could clearly see where I had been stabbed. Golden threads of reishi spread over the skin like stitches that were holding me together. They didn't appear to actually pierce my skin, but rather looked like glue that wove over my skin holding the scabbing slice in my skin together.

"It hurts a bit," I said as I delicately ran my finger over the cut. The sharp pain I caused myself had me quickly pulling away from the wound, but considering how deep had been, I was pretty happy.

"I should make you go to Squad 4's infirmary," he said as his hands clasped over my hips to hold me still and knelt, his gaze focused on the wound. I watched him as he examined my wound until his eyes flicked up to mine. "This was your shikai?"

I nodded. "I was in a bit of a panic when I did it though."

He remained kneeling for another moment before he slowly stood, his gaze never leaving mine. "I need to get back to the squad, but I will be nearby. Sleep off the effects of his shikai Ria." He leaned down and presses a gentle kiss to the top of my head. "You know how to get my attention if you need to."

I nodded as he pulled away and headed for the door, leaving me alone in the room. I let out a long sigh and closed the door. He had more people to worry about than just me, so his leaving didn't exactly bother me. I couldn't always be selfish and keep him all to myself. He had other people that depended on him.

Moving about the room I changed out of my ruined shihakusho and cleaned the blood from my skin before donning a sleeping yukata. Rolling out my futon I struggled with random memories that pounced on me every time I thought about something that had happened. Even something as simple as making my bed had me stuck in the past. It must have taken me over an hour to actually lay down and longer yet before I started to nod off. I woke several times in the throes of a nightmare only to be drug back into another when I fell back asleep.

The last time I woke up though, it wasn't from a nightmare. Something touched my hand, startling me from the beginnings of another dream. Blearily I blinked up into darkness to see Captain Hitsugaya sitting beside my futon, his hand gently moving mine to where he could easily hold it. I squeezed his hand as my eyes slid closed, a relaxed smile turning my lips. Silently I thanked him as I drifted back to sleep…


	10. She Who Belongs

**Seer**

**She Who Belongs**

It was dark out when I woke to the soft slide of a closing door. I blinked up into the darkness of the room, my head still turned towards where I remembered Toshiro sitting as he held my hand. My hand was now tucked under the comforter, but as I reached out to lay my palm on the floor I realized it was still warm with his body heat. That had been him closing the door…

Slowly I sat up, testing my head as I reached vertical. I felt fine, well rested in fact. I didn't wait to see how the rest of my body felt as I slipped out of the futon and stood. I could feel his spiritual pressure moving away as I thought about him. He must have been on his way back to his house. I pushed the door to my room open and made my way down the porch that wrapped around the building. As I rounded the corner of Rangiku's house I spotted his white hair and haori in the darkness as he moved, the black Squad 10 insignia printed across his back. He was walking through the grass towards his own home at a slow pace.

I stepped down off the porch and moved across the grass at a brisk walk, trying to catch up to him without tripping over my yukata. Dew clung to the grass under my bare feet, slicking my steps as I moved. I did my best to ignore it as I called out, "Toshiro." He stopped and turned to me, but at the distance I couldn't make out his expression in the darkness.

"Ria," he breathed out my name. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't," I quickly responded as I stopped before him. "I mean, you did. Well, I heard the door." I looked away, embarrassed by how badly I was fumbling my words.

"How are you feeling?" He asked. This close to him I could see his eyes were soft with concern as he looked down at me.

"I feel fine now," I said as I clasped my hands together in front of me nervously. "I suppose that I shouldn't have ran out here like I did, but I felt you moving away and I just had the urge to follow."

"It's alright Ria," he murmured. "Are you sure that you are fine though?"

"Yes," I responded automatically. I shook my head though and continued, "I don't know. I think so." I knew I was talking to fast and on the verge of rambling. I stared down at my hands as my fingers knotted themselves together.

"Hey," he cooed as his hands cupped my cheeks and lifted my face so I was looking up to him. He seemed to be watching my eyes rather than looking into them. "I can't tell if you're still being effected by Amagi's shikai or not."

"It's not that," I said with a small shake of my head. "Yesterday I didn't have a chance to talk to you. Everything happened so fast and I spent most of the day trying to sleep off that hallucinogen."

He studied my face for a moment before he let his face relax away from the concerned look that had been there. "What on earth could be bothering you so much?"

I opened my mouth to answer and hesitated. How could I summarize everything that my sister and I had spoken of yesterday? Was it even something I should bring up? I hadn't really thought it through before now. I bit my lip as I puzzled over my thoughts before finally I came up with a word.

"Marriage."

His eyes widened and his brows lifted, his mouth forming a silent 'oh' in surprise.

"I'm sorry," I quickly apologized as I stepped back from him. "I'm being too blunt. My brain to mouth filter hasn't kicked in yet." I turned away, giving him my back as I covered my mouth in horror. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant just me, and then there was you, and my sister and my obligations and the elders. I-I-" I clamped my own hand down on my mouth to shut myself up. I was just digging a giant hole.

Choked back laughter drew me out of my fit of panic. Slowly I turned back around, gazing in horror at Toshiro as he pursed his lips together in a terrible attempt to silence the laughter that he clearly couldn't stop from bubbling up. I had never seen his eyes twinkle with humor before. It was a completely foreign expression on his face as he watched me.

"W-what are you laughing about?" I demanded.

"You were clearly raised by nobles," he said between chuckles.

"You know that I was. What does that have to do with this?" I said waving a hand to gesture at all of him.

He captured my flapping hand in his own and pulled me to him. I slipped on the wet grass with the sudden movement and ended up falling into him. He caught me with his arm around my waist and pulled me into his body. I could only stare up at him in awe as he smiled down at me, the laughter he had been expressing still reflecting in his eyes.

"Explain to me why marriage is bothering you, and I will explain why I find you so inevitably amusing," he teased me.

I tried to form words, but all I could think about was the way he held me to him. How his hand spread across my lower back; his fingers curling firmly into my hip; the way his other hand held mine; the feel of his body pressed to mine; his eyes as they gazed down at me. It was like sensory overload. I was so unbelievably attracted to him that I couldn't think about anything else when he was this close to me. I nodded slowly to respond to him. I couldn't seem to come up with words as my brain struggled to process my own thoughts.

"Let's get inside where we can actually have some privacy," he said as his chest shook with suppressed laughter. He pulled back from me and shifted to my side, his hand never leaving the small of my back as he guided us towards the back porch of his house.

"I doubt anyone is out at this hour," I commented as we reached the back porch.

"With the way you've been attracting attention?" He made it a question as he looked down at me with a quirked eyebrow.

"You've got a point," I replied in a small voice.

He stepped up onto the porch before me, leaving me to follow him. I quickly shook my bare feet before I stepped up, kicking off the wet blades of grass that had clung to my skin. He slid one of the doors leading inside open, flooding the porch with light as he walked through it. I followed his path inside, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the interior lights. I closed the door behind me before I followed the sound of another door down the hallway. I ended up in the living room I had been in before. Not seeing Toshiro, I assumed he had gone into his room so I found a spot on one of the couches and sat to wait for him.

He emerged from his room a moment later without his captain's haori. I had seen him several times lately without it, but between his entrance to the house and now he had pulled loose the fabric of his shihakusho, allowing a long line of skin from his chest down to his abdomen to be exposed. My mouth went dry at the sight of him. Oh geeze… I had to look away from him to avoid the heat that had started to tint my cheeks. This was going to be a difficult conversation to not blush during. Maybe if I just looked at the floor the whole time…

He sat across from me on the other couch, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. I could feel his eyes on me as I pointedly avoided meeting his while I tried to control my hyperactive blushing. Why did he have to loosen his shirt like that? It was like he was trying to tease me… After a long moment, I finally had my cheeks under control and I met his gaze, forcing myself to not blush. His expression was back to his usual serious face, but the intensity of his gaze was anything but intimidating. He was waiting for me to start this conversation.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself. "Before I chose to become a soul reaper, I was groomed by my sister to be placed in an advantageous marriage to another family. An arranged marriage, if you will." I said as I used my hands to illustrate what I was saying. "When I graduated from the Spiritual Arts Academy my sister chose to release me from my obligations to marry for advantage. Despite knowing this, I had maintained the mentality that it was my duty to my name and my family to remain..." I struggled for a word to use for a moment, my eyes searching the air for what I was grasping at. "To remain unattached, or at the very least to search for a match that would satisfy the elders."

I grimaced as I tried to think of a better way to explain my situation. "This is kinda coming out wrong, but I'm not sure how to make it sound like I wasn't an idiot."

"Just say what is on your mind," he suggested. He made it sound so easy…

"This," I said gesturing between the two of us. "This was taboo for me, but I couldn't- can't -help myself. I am so attracted to you that it drives me crazy every moment of the day. When you're near me I can't focus on anything or anyone else. I just-" I had to cut myself off before I got completely off topic. I closed my eyes, drawing myself out of my feelings and putting myself back on track.

"Up until I spoke with my sister yesterday, I was convinced that no matter who I found for myself, that they wouldn't be good enough for the elders or for the clan. I was convinced that until someone was chosen for me, I would never be allowed to marry someone of my choice." I opened my eyes and met his gaze with my own focused stare. "Up until yesterday I didn't want to want someone. I didn't want to fall so hard that my heart would be torn out when I was told no, so I had been trying to be reserved."

Silence hung in the air for a moment as I tried to say what I had been leading up to. Planning to explain how I felt about things had always been difficult. Whenever I managed to admit something, it was usually in an outburst where everything just came pouring out of my mouth in some messed up form of word vomit.

"This was yesterday that your opinion changed?" he prompted me.

I let out a huff of a laugh and shook my head. "I've been in trouble with you since that day in the forest."

He stood from the couch in a slow, languid movement and moved around the coffee table towards me. He sat down on the edge of the table in front of me, his knees parted on either side of mine so he could be closer to me while still directly in front of me. He rested his hands on the coffee table at his sides as he leaned towards me just enough for me to really feel his full attention on me. His aquamarine gaze had me trapped and unable to look away. He was so close to me, yet only his knees were touching me. It was maddening.

"What changed?" He crooned, his voice rumbling in his chest.

I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat but finally found my voice. "My understanding of my situation. Everything I had allowed myself to feel was conditional on what was expected of me. But, there are no expectations. I don't have to marry for any purpose other than my own happiness." I slid to the edge of the couch, sliding my knees down to rest on the floor as I balanced myself so most of my weight was still on the cushions. Our noses were only a few inches apart like this, the difference in our height barely noticed. "I want to be selfish. I want to see where whatever this is between us goes and for once, I don't have to worry about what anyone else thinks."

His cool eyes watched me for a long moment. I couldn't tell what he was thinking with his unchanging expression. Part of me wanted to keep talking, to justify my words with rambling non-sense while the other half of me was begging for him to say something. Anything…

His hand lifted from the table and traced up my sleeve as he reached for my hair. I felt his fingers ghost over my hair to my chignon, so I turned my head to allow him to see whatever he was doing. I felt him pull on my kanzashi, which I was surprised was still in my hair. I must have fallen asleep with it still in place. He pulled gently on it and I felt it pull free from my hair, taking several strands with it that tickled my neck as they dangled. The familiar jingle of the silver ribbons chimed as he placed my kanzashi on the coffee table behind him.

"It looked like it was going to fall," he said in a hushed tone. I smiled as my gaze trailed down to linger on his exposed chest.

"Thank you," I mumbled. "So, are you going to tell me why you find me so amusing?"

"You've never been in a relationship with someone else," he mused.

A blush lit my cheeks. "Is it that obvious?"

"To me, yes," he said as he rested his palm against my jaw, the pad of his thumb drawing across my reddened cheek. "You try to keep your feelings to yourself, but you end up saying exactly how you feel. Most people wouldn't say anything until they had been together for some time."

"Why?" I asked, surprised.

"Most people will not open themselves up to the pain of rejection." Like a cloud passing over the sun, his expression was suddenly filled with regret that filled his eyes with emotion. I just knew he wasn't thinking of me, but something in his past that had hurt. It was the first time I had ever seen such an expression from him and I felt the urge to make it go away.

I pushed away from the couch and pressed my body closer to his. His attention seemed to slip away from whatever he had been thinking about to me as I slipped my hand over his shoulder and pulled him the short distance down to me so I could kiss him. He seemed frozen with surprise when my lips pressed to his, but he quickly snapped out of it. His arms surrounded me, pulling my body gently closer to his as his mouth moved against mine. The kiss was gentler than our previous heated exchanges, but the feel of him still had butterflies tickling my stomach.

I tilted my head forward, parting our lips as my forehead rested against his. I didn't really know what to say, so I kept silent as I enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms. I hadn't realized it until just now, but that had been the first time that I had actually been the one to kiss him. Whenever we had kissed before, it had been him initiating the interaction. The realization had those pesky butterflies running rampant and my heart pounding high in my chest.

"I want to chase away whatever that was in your eyes," I whispered when I finally found my words.

He nuzzled his nose against mine with a subtle shake of his head. "You can't change the past."

"I suppose not, but maybe" I started to say as I pulled back just enough so I could focus on his eyes. "Maybe I can make the pain of it go away."

A tension I hadn't noticed that he was holding in his eyes seemed to relax away as I stared up at him. He let out a small sigh and leaned his head down, pressing his forehead against mine again. "You really are going to be a handful…"

We spent the rest of the night snuggled together, sitting between the couch and the coffee table. I wasn't sure what I had expected when I had decided to chase after him, but snuggled together was something I could have never predicted. We shared stories of our lives with each other, the time alone one serving to ease my nerves as he held me. It was so easy to talk to him like this. Sitting between his legs with my back pressed to his chest I didn't have the urge to try and hide my face when I started blushing or had to hide a laugh. It felt so right, like I belonged here with him in this moment. I wasn't sure how he felt about it, but the way his arms tightened around me when he leaned forward to say something into my ear… I was going to have to buy a cage for those damn butterflies.

Light began to filter through the windows as dawn approached. I hadn't realized just how long we had been talking until then. The realization just made a happy smile turn my lips. I rested my head back into the crook of his shoulder so I could see his face. "Did I really keep you up all night?"

"No," he replied. "But you did keep me up all morning."

I laughed quietly to myself. "I would apologize, but I'm not exactly sorry," I teased.

"Then don't," he said as he brushed a stray strand of my hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear. His gaze shifted to the window as he took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "I've been avoiding bringing up yesterday, but I need to fill you in on what happened after I left you at Rangiku's."

"Amagi?" I asked hesitantly.

"Between the time that we were gone and when I arrived, he had fallen unconscious inside your glass box," he explained. His eyes flicked down to me as he continued, "Whatever you made that out of, I had to use Danku to break it."

"A bakudo?" I asked in confusion.

"I placed it inside of your box so it would split the walls open."

"Oh," I murmured as I drew my gaze down, my hand moving to rest over where Amagi's blade had pierced me. It still hurt like the deep wound that it was, but even through the fabric of my yukata I could feel the reishi I had woven over my skin. "That would explain why my zanpakuto told me to maintain my shikai yesterday."

"Why is that?" He asked, his hand trailing over my own as I held the injured spot.

"I made those walls out of the same composition that my shikai armor is made of, just thicker. If I had been wearing it when Amagi had wounded me, I doubt his blade would have penetrated the armor." I shook my head and looked back up to him. "What else happened?"

"Kyrouni was taken to Squad 12's detention unit for study," he said as his gaze trailed back up to watch the window. "When he regained consciousness, he had no recollection of the events that had occurred after he had been attacked in the offices."

"Do they know why?" I asked slowly as my brain tried to fit details together in my head.

"They believe his mind was somehow tampered with," his voice seemed to darken as he spoke. "You are the only one who interacted with him closely. Did you notice anything besides the obvious?"

"His eyes," I started to say but hesitated. "They were all the same."

"Who?"

"The man from the night of the festival, the stealth force guy and Amagi. They all had the same grey eyes," I paused for a moment, thinking back to the day before. "That same sadistic looking grin." I closed my eyes and pursed my lips as I tried to recall just how similar they had all been.

"Ria," he cooed my name as he turned my head up with his hand cupping my jaw. I didn't object when his mouth covered mine, instead turning my body into him. "You don't have to think about it right now," he said against my lips.

"I'm fine," I breathed out. "I'd rather think about it now than later when I can psych myself out."

"Alright," he said as he pulled back just enough to look at me clearly. "What did you mean by they all were the same?"

"Did you look at Amagi before you took me to Rangiku's?" I asked.

"Briefly," he said.

"Amagi's eyes are naturally yellow, like the flowers that bloom from his shikai," I explained. "But yesterday when he attacked me, his eyes were grey. The same grey that the stealth force guy's eyes and the man that assaulted me in my room."

"You're thinking that they are all connected?" He suggested.

"Well, it wasn't just their eyes. It was their expressions, the way they spoke, how Amagi knew exactly what to say to trigger memories that he had no part in." I pressed my fingers to the spot where the hollow had ran me through as I thought. I didn't have a scar to show for the injury, but the new skin was paler than the rest of my body leaving a white line on my back and chest. "He even knew what that hollow had said to me, like he had been there."

"I didn't feel anyone else's spiritual pressure that night," he said quietly.

I nodded and looked down to where my hand rested over my chest. Someone had been trying to kill me for almost two weeks, and I didn't even know why. I hadn't even been given me an ultimatum or anything. Someone just wanted me dead…

I let out a small sigh and hung my head. "I just don't understand why. I am a nobody. What's the point in targeting me?"

"There was something else that came up yesterday," Toshiro started to say. "The Head Captain wants to see you."

I perked up at his words and raised my head abruptly with surprise. "Uncle Shunsui?" The amused expression on Toshiro's face had me stumbling to cover myself. "Sorry, Head Captain Kyoraku."

"Uncle?" He prompted.

"He's Lady Nanao's uncle. Growing up, I was the only child in the Ise Clan and I spent a lot of time at the Kyoraku Estate learning etiquette and proper mannerisms from the ladies there. Sometimes between lessons I would go out to see the blossoms with him and he'd tell me stories. I started calling him uncle after a little while, even though I really have no relation to him at all." I shifted, turning until I was sitting on my knees and fully facing him. "I haven't spoken to him outside of formal occasions since I became a soul reaper though. Why does he want to see me?"

"It isn't my place to say," he replied as he adjusted his position so he was sitting straight instead of leaning back against the couch. "It was implied to be a family matter."

I gave him a puzzled look but nodded in understanding. It must have been something to do with the Ise Clan. I had spoken to my sister yesterday, but our conversation hadn't led me to believe that something would be said about it. Had my sister said something to Lady Nanao? Even if she had, there was no reason for me to have to talk to the Head Captain about what was going on. Most soldier affairs were handled within their respective squads.

"I guess I should go get ready then," I said reluctantly.

"Alright," he replied. I started to move to stand, but Toshiro's hand caught my wrist before I could really go anywhere. His gaze had reverted to his normal expression, cold and intimidating, as he gazed up at me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked hesitantly.

"What or whoever is behind the attacks, I will find and kill them Ria," he said, his voice deep and menacing. "I promise."

I smiled down at him, understanding that the emotions he was expressing weren't towards me, but for me. "I trust you, Toshiro."

"Come find me when you are ready," he said as he let my wrist slip from his grasp.

"I will," I replied as I finished getting to my feet. I left him still sitting on the floor of his living room, watching me as I vanished through the doors to the hallway and outside. I moved quickly over the grassy expanse that separated his house and Rangiku's, trying to be quiet as I shook off my wet feet and darted into my room.

I made quick work of getting cleaned up. I was used to getting ready, but with the wound on my abdomen it had taken a bit longer so I could clean the area as best as I could. I spent a little extra time wrapping my chest as well, just in case I had to take my shihakusho top off later to check my wound. Despite the extra time I took getting dressed I was still done in thirty minutes or so. I had thrown my hair up in my usual chignon, fully intending on retrieving my kanzashi from where I had forgotten it on Toshiro's coffee table.

Securing my zanpakuto in my sash I paused with my hand on her hilt. I thought about calling out to her, asking for my name today, but for some reason I felt like I didn't need to. I… I wasn't worried about myself. It was a sensation I had never experienced before. I wanted to ask my zanpakuto what the feeling was, but someone's presence at the door to my room drew my attention.

"Ria," Rangiku's voice loomed ominously into the room.

Oh boy…

"Where have you been?" she asked deviously as she slowly slid the door to my room open. She was still dressed in her sleeping yukata with her blonde waves of hair still mussed around her from sleep.

"I, uh," I hesitated as I tried to think of what to say. 'Spent the night over at the Captain's,' didn't sound like a very good answer to give Rangiku. She would assume that we did a lot more than we actually did… "I went to talk to Captain Hitsugaya about yesterday."

"What else did you do when you were over there?" She asked, but her words sounded more like she already knew what had happened. She knew there was something going on between us, but the smug look she was giving me reminded me so much of my sister's that I knew she must have known more.

"Did you… follow us?" I asked suspiciously.

"I might have seen you two, together, when I came to bring you your zanpakuto. You were very distracted with one another." The devilish glint in her blue eyes told me everything that she didn't have to say. I could just imagine her peeking around the corner of the window at any point in the night to see us together. I should have thought to close the blinds… "You two go well together."

"What?" I asked her, surprised by her words.

"You two are cute together," she rephrased.

Fighting the blush that consumed my cheeks was like trying to put out a grease fire with water. "Thanks," I mumbled.

Her face hardened into an unusually serious expression. "I'm sure it isn't my place to say this, but I don't really care. He's used to be a different person from the cold and irritable guy that he is now." She moved over to the desk that rested against the wall and leaned her hip against it. "That same guy is still in there, but even I only see him on rare occasions. Whenever he has been with you, it like the old him pokes through for a while. And earlier, when I saw you two together it was like seeing the old captain back."

"That's how… he used to be?" I asked hesitantly.

"Don't get me wrong, he had his scary moments. But the softer expressions I saw on his face earlier this morning, those belonged to a much younger Toshiro."

"What happened?" I blurted out.

Rangiku's gaze flicked to the floor as she ran a hand through her hair. "Let's just say that he got left behind by someone that meant a lot to him, but he couldn't do anything about it for her sake. His way of dealing with it was to shut himself in, resulting in the captain that you know now."

"You're worried for him," I stated. I knew that Rangiku had been the Lieutenant of Squad 10 longer than Captain Hitsugaya had even been a soul reaper but, in that moment, I realized how much she cared for him.

"Ria, if whatever is going on between you two is more than just a passing fancy, please, pull him out of that shell." Her gaze focused on me, the churning emotions of her request flashing in her eyes.

"I wouldn't even know how to," I started to say, but Rangiku interrupted me.

"Just be you. If whatever you two have doesn't work out, then so be it. But, if it does, please bring back that softer side of him." She pushed off the desk and walked over to me, her hands clamping down on my shoulders. "Save him from himself. Thirty years ago, we both suffered from terrible injuries that resulted in the loss of a significant part of our life span. I don't want him to spend the rest of his life, however short or long it may be, wallowing in his past."

I stared at her in surprise. "Thirty years ago? That was when the Quincy attacked the Soul King's palace?"

"Yes," she confirmed. "We were both-"

"That doesn't matter to me," I interrupted to her. "I mean, it matters in the aspect that it was something that happened has affected the both of you. But, when it comes to how I feel towards him, it doesn't matter." I bit my lip as I cast my gaze to the side.

"But something does matter," she prompted as she leaned her head to the side to watch my face.

"Whoever she is, are they still around?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, but they don't see each other much anymore," she replied.

I nodded. "I had no idea. He was always so intimidating. I spent the last five years tip toeing around him because he was so darn scary. I thought that was just how he was." I said as I pulled away from her.

"No, it's not him." She replied. "Though, he may think it is now."

I started walking towards the door, pausing as I slid it open to smile back at her. "You are a really good person, Rangiku. I can't promise that whatever is between us will work out, or that I'll live through it, but I can promise that I won't hurt him. I… I couldn't bear it if I did."

I left her then, closing the door behind me as I walked around the porch to the other side of the house. I stopped just as Toshiro's house came into view and thought back on what Rangiku had said. She left him behind… Who was she? Perhaps it wasn't my place to be wondering because it really didn't matter who, but… If they had really meant that much to him, maybe one day he would tell me on his own.

Shaking my head I flash stepped across the grass to avoid getting my sandals wet and stopped at his front door. I raised my hand to knock on the door, but stopped and smiled as I felt his spiritual pressure moving towards me. I spun away from the door and gazed out on the barracks that the front of his house faced. I was only waiting for a moment before I heard the door slide open and closed.

"You forgot your-"

"Kanzashi?" I interrupted him as I turned around.

"Yes," he replied softly as he looked down at me.

"Do you mind?" I asked as I turned my head to show him my chignon. He stepped into me and slid my kanzashi into its place on the first try. The silver ribbons jingled as I lifted my head to gaze up at him.

"Thank you," I murmured as I shook my head a little to make the ribbons jingle even more. His fingers trailed from the corner of my jaw to my chin affectionately before he dropped his hand to his side.

"This early, Head Captain Kyoraku is probably still at the Ugendo Quarters." He said as he moved around me.

"The Ugendo Quarters?" I asked as I followed him.

"It was where the former captain of Squad 13 resided. The Head Captain tends to spend his mornings there," he replied as he flash stepped away. I quickly followed him, trying to match his speed as he made his way across the rooftops toward Squad 13's area. The wound in my gut hurt trying to maintain his speed, but I ignored it as best I could and put most of my power into the other side of my body to compensate.

After a few minutes, we stopped beside a large clear lake that was surrounded by lush grass and paved walk ways. It took me a moment to realize that this wasn't Squad 13's area, but somewhere completely different. The buildings that were a little ways off belonged to one of the noble families instead of being part of the squad barracks, and outside of Squad 10's area that I typically maintained, I had never seen so much vegetation in the barracks area…

"This is an estate?" I asked as I observed the area. A long wooden dock lead out into the lake where a building resided on pillars in the water.

"The Ukitake compound," Toshiro replied as he started walking towards the dock. I followed closely behind him, my hand ghosting across the railing that lined one side as we moved. I couldn't help but to be a little nervous. Family business was something I would have expected to come from Lady Nanao or the elders, not Shunsui Kyoraku. I really had no relation to him at all, so what on earth could he have to say?

Rounding the corner of the building we were greeted by a pair of open shoji doors that revealed a large room. The room was sparsely furnished with an elegant chabudai table and cushions in the center, but the room was hardly noticed when my gaze caught Head Captain Kyoraku sitting on the other side of the room at another set of open shoji doors. He was sitting in the sun with his back to us as he looked out across the lake. The pink kimono that he always wore was draped across his shoulders like it always seemed to be, his straw hat resting beside him on the porch.

"I wasn't expecting you two so early," he said as he glanced over his shoulder towards us. His expression was light and amused as his cobalt grey eyes drifted from Toshiro to myself. Remembering proper mannerisms, I softly dropped to one knee and bowed my head. If I had been meeting him as a lady of the Ise Clan, I would have dropped to both of my knees and given him a more formal bow. But as it was, I was just another member of a squad, so I had to show the proper respect.

"Yes, well, I thought it best," Toshiro responded as he left me where I was kneeling and walked over to the Head Captain.

"You're probably right," he responded with a nod. "Come over here Ria, unless you intend to make me talk to you from all the way over there."

"Of course not, Head Captain," I responded as I rose and walked over to him. As I approached, Lady Nanao became visible from where she stood in the porch just around the corner. I quickly gave her a small bow upon meeting her violet gaze before continuing into the sun. I stopped when I was in front of him but still off to one side and knelt, bowing my head respectfully.

"Relax, would you?" He said with a huff. "You're making me feel old, acting all stiff like that."

I glanced cautiously up to Lady Nanao before I let my body slide to the side, allowing me to sit with my legs folded to one side of my body. "I'm sorry Head Captain, I am just unsure of how to interact with you in such a format."

He gave me a look that clearly said 'really?'

"Uncle Shunsui," I corrected myself as I looked down out of embarrassment.

He let out an exasperated sigh and looked up to Toshiro. "Can you two give us a moment."

Nerves bubbled up in my gut as I watched Lady Nanao and Toshiro nod and start walking away. I couldn't see the dock that led out to this building, but I could hear their footsteps as they stopped a little distance away from us, giving us the illusion of privacy. I tried my best to not show the nervous tension that was seeping into me as I let my gaze rest on Shunsui. His own cobalt grey eyes were focused out on the water, his face relaxed and mouth set in a slight smile.

"It's been a while since we were alone, hasn't it?" He asked quietly.

"About 18 years," I replied.

His gaze shifted across the water until he was looking at me from the corner of his eye. "You have no idea why you're here, do you?"

"N-no," I replied hesitantly. "Captain Hitsugaya said it was a family matter, but I am unsure of why I'm talking to you instead of Lady Nanao."

He rocked his head to the side and turned his gaze back out to the water. "This doesn't exactly have something to do with the Ise Clan. This has to do with you and your sister."

"Mio? Has something happened to her?" I couldn't stop the concern from leaking into my voice.

"No, she's fine. But we suspect that something will be happening soon, just like someone has been after you."

"Why?" I asked abruptly. "Why would someone be after her?"

"The same reason they are after you, Ria. Your name."

I blinked at him for a moment. "My name?"

"Yes," he said. His hands moved from where they had been resting in his lap and he placed them on the ground, using his arms to turn his entire body towards me. He leaned forward until his arms could rest on his folded legs and watched me with his relaxed expression. "You're from North Rukon, district 4, correct?"

I nodded slowly. "Yes, I moved into the Ise Clan with my sister when I was four."

"At the time, there were several other families with the name Yamamoto in the district, also correct?"

I nodded again. "Yes, Yamamoto is a common name there."

"As of earlier this year, there is no other family within either the Seireitei or the Rukon Districts with the name Yamamoto."

I stared at him in disbelief for a long moment, unable to comprehend what he had said. After a moment, I smiled and pointed a finger at him. "That's funny. There's no way that's possible. Yamamoto is such a common name where I'm from. I mean, there's probably more Yamamoto's in District 4 than there are stray dogs." I waved a hand to dismiss the thought. "That's a good joke though. You had me going for a second there, Uncle Shunsui."

"I wish I was joking Ria," he said as his expression became serious.

"But you must be," I denied. "There's no way that many people could just up and disappear."

"They didn't disappear. Within the last thirty years every one of them has died."

I watched his face in silence, waiting for him to smile and start teasing me. When a minute went by and then another, my own expression slowly dropped. He was serious… "How?"

"Various reasons. Records of death in the Rukon districts are somewhat vague. But, the last family passed in a house fire just over a month ago. Even the people who married into other families have passed on in one way or another."

I looked away from him then, casting my gaze out onto the water. "How did someone not notice that something was happening? I know it's not uncommon for people to pass on, and it's even encouraged in some events to prevent overcrowding in the Soul Society. But for so many people in one area to pass away…"

"It wasn't noticed because it happened over a span of thirty years," He replied. "If 126 people had died in one day, someone would have noticed, but over a span that long it wasn't even an abnormality."

"Why did such an occurrence make it to your attention now?" I asked as I watch several colorful coy playing just beneath the surface of the water. My eyes followed their glimmering scales as they flitted in and out of the shade of the porch.

"Well," he started to say. I heard him shift so I glanced over to see that he was leaning back, his eyes looking up at the sky. "That's where the family matters come into play."

"Did my sister say something?" I asked him.

"No, Rukia and Toshiro did," he replied easily. "They were concerned about you after you were attacked by that hollow two weeks ago, so I had Nanao do some digging." He paused as if he were thinking about his next words. He stayed silent for a long moment though, his gaze wandering across the sky.

"And?" I prompted him.

"You never met the old Head Captain," he began. "Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto."

"No, I was only ten years old when he died," I replied. "What does he have to do with this?"

He pulled his head down from looking at the sky and gave me a lazy smile. "Somewhere in your lineage, Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto was your ancestor."

I slowly quirked an eyebrow at him. "He passed away 30 years ago. I'm positive I was born well before that. Saying ancestor implies that he was at least my grandfather's father. I don't see how that's possible."

"Old man Yama was well over 2000 years old when he passed."

I blinked dumbly at him.

"Do you know how your sister met Nanao's cousin?" He asked, completely changing topics.

I shook my head, failing to come up with words.

"I was on my way to see a friend in the Rukon District when I passed her. I remember feeling her spiritual pressure and being reminded of Old man Yama, so the next day I asked him about it. He of course had no idea what I was talking about, or so he said. So, the next day I offered your sister a job in the Kyoraku Estate where she met Nanao's cousin. I don't think it was six months later before she was married to Daichi."

"I don't remember that," I said as I tried to think back to the time. I had been so young though, only small memories remained. Entering the Seireitei for the first time, getting dressed in my first fancy kimono…

"That was when I met you," he said as he shifted forward, focusing his attention on me. "If your sister had a spark of Old man Yama's spiritual pressure, you had an ocean of it. Even if he wouldn't admit that you were his descendant, there was no question in my mind."

"There's no way," I denied. "The previous Head Captain had a fiery spiritual pressure that would burn people that were nearby," I quoted from a lesson we had back in the academy. "My spiritual pressure is nothing like that. Even my zanpakuto is a completely different type."

"Have you ever met Rukia's daughter, Ichika Abarai?" He asked abruptly.

"Yes, of course. She's sometimes with Rukia when I go over to practice." I replied.

"Have you ever questioned that they are related?"

I had to think about that. Ichika looked almost nothing like her mother other than her violet eyes. She had red hair just like Renji's and she was several inches taller than Rukia. Everything about her was more like her dad, even her personality and abilities. "Well, no. Not really. They…" I had to hesitate as I realized what I was about to say. "They feel the same."

"And their zanpakuto's are completely different as well," he said, filling in what my brain had yet to think. "Just like you and Old man Yama."

"Why… Why didn't you say something?" I asked.

"I thought you knew," he replied with a shrug. "Everyone else who was around when Old man Yama was alive knows. You feel too much like him for people to not know. It's even the reason that after he died I had you start taking lessons at my estate. The old man treated Jushiro and I as if we were his sons. I only saw it fit that after he died, there was someone to look out for you too."

I opened my mouth to object, but stopped myself. Everyone always assumed that I was related to the former head captain. I always denied it and corrected them, but… I was wrong the whole time? Even Toshiro had known but never corrected me… My zanpakuto was right, I really was dense.

"Is that why my sister was allowed to marry Daichi?" I asked.

"You'd have to ask Nanao about that, but knowing her it wasn't. She too much of a closet romantic."

"I heard that sir!" Nanao's shout came from a little distance away.

He chuckled to himself at her words.

"But wait, why was someone killing off everyone with our last name?" I asked, dragging us back on topic.

"Well, we suspect that someone is targeting Old man Yama's descendants. There have been a lot of people over the years who had held a grudge against the old man. He was simply too powerful for just anyone to seek revenge though. People with the name Yamamoto only starting dying after he had passed on, so it makes the most sense. Now you and your sister are the only two left as far as we can tell."

"Why us though?" I asked. "Why were we saved for last?"

"You both are the only ones within places of security. Your sister being a member of the Ise Clan has protected her, and you being a Soul Reaper probably kept you last on their list as well. Now that there is no one else for them to target, they are coming after you."

"Is my sister really going to be safe though? I can at least defend myself, well, not really, but she has no ability what so ever," I said quickly, unable to stop myself from rambling.

"The wards that protect the Ise Clan Manor are nothing to shake a stick at. She is perfectly safe," He assured me.

"You don't understand," I said quickly. "She's pregnant and-"

"She's what?" I heard Lady Nanao shout as footsteps pounded towards us. She rounded the corner leading from the dock, her violet eyes fixed on me.

"She's pregnant," I repeated. "She was going to tell Daichi yesterday when he got back from the Kyoraku Estate."

"She'll be fine, Ria," Shunsui assured me. "Nanao already told her not to leave the estate. The wards will keep anyone who doesn't belong out."

"How far along is she?" Lady Nanao interrupted as she stepped around her captain and knelt in front of me.

Suddenly realizing that I had told her something that my sister probably wanted to keep private for a while, I shook my head. "I don't know, she didn't say."

"When did she find out? When is the baby shower?" She asked as she leaned in closer to me.

"Nanao," Shunsui said, trying to get her attention.

"Why didn't she tell me?" She continued.

"Nanao," he tried again. When she ignored him, he let out a sigh and hung his head.

"I don't know, you should ask her," I tried to deflect. "She should have told Daichi all that stuff yesterday, so he would know too."

"Head Captain," Nanao said as she turned to him and pushed her glassed up on her nose. "I need the rest of the day off."

"Now, now. I'm sure it can wait-"

"No, it can't!" she objected. "They have been trying to get pregnant for years. I must find out the details, now."

Silence fell between the two for a moment and his face dropped. Whatever sort of devastating look she had given him worked, because he said, "Go ahead." She vanished as soon as the words left his mouth, leaving us staring at each other in understanding. I had fallen prey to several of her 'looks' over the years. She could be darn scary when she wanted to be.

"Toshiro," he called out as his face went back to his typically relaxed expression. On command, Toshiro emerged from around the same corner that Nanao had ran in from. His gaze was shifted down to look at Shunsui as he stopped behind him. Shunsui didn't bother looking to see if he was there before he continued, "I had been planning to transfer Ria into my squad, but from what Nanao has told me, you two have grown rather close. In this regard, I'm trusting you to protect her in my stead, Captain."

I silently groaned at his words. Did everyone know that we were 'growing close'?

"Understood," Toshiro replied.

"That's all I have for you two," Shunsui said as he turned back to the lake and leaned back on his hands, basking in the sun. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I stood and followed Toshiro as he made his way down the dock back to shore. "Oh," I heard Shunsui called out. "Don't let her flash step back."

"Yes, I noticed," Toshiro responded as his gaze flicked down to me.

"What?" I asked as I met his gaze.

"You're favoring your left side when you walk," He responded. "Your injury is bothering you, isn't it?"

"I'm fine," I quickly said as my hand went to my abdomen. "It's just sore."

"This particular injury aside, the last time you said that you were fine you were about ready to pass out from using your shikai. The words 'I'm fine' have absolute no meaning when they come from you." He said as he stopped and walked around me.

"Hey now, I really was okay. I was just tired." I defended as I turned to keep myself facing him.

Abruptly he bent down, his arm swooping down to catch the back of my legs. If I had expected it, I wouldn't have been standing with my legs so close together, but I wasn't and his arm took out both of my knees. I fell backwards with a squeak of surprise as he caught me and pulled me into his body. I silently swore at him as he took off in a flash step, forcing me to hide my face in his haori or let my eyes water.

It was only a moment or two later that I felt him transition into a normal walking gait. Unburying my face from his chest I glanced around so see that he had stopped at the medical wing our squad maintained. He slid the shoji door open with his foot and walked into the darkened room. We didn't staff the medical wing like some other squads did. It was just here for use and restocked as needed since we didn't need to use it often. Since he had come here, I could only assume that it was so he could look at my wound better than he had last night.

Toshiro set me on my feet before turning to close the door to the room. Reluctantly I started pulling my shihakusho top off so I could see the wound. I was extremely happy with myself for having wrapped my chest this morning so I could take my top off without exposing myself. I moved over to one of the medical beds as I slipped the top from my shoulders. I laid it across the bed and looked down at myself, leaning back so I could see the wound around the swell of my breasts. It looked much like any other stab wound, the seam in my body red and swollen with the skin around it turning a nice shade of blue and purple. The golden threads of reishi that held it together seemed to be frayed ever so slightly, like the strain of holding my body together had been wearing away at it.

"Ria…"

I half turned to glance at Toshiro where he stood behind me. I had been looking at taking my top off as a clinical thing. I had to do it to see my wound, so it was of little concern. But, the heated gaze that met my own had me suddenly very aware of how little clothing I had covering my top half. Because of the way that the shihakusho was worn, without the fabric of my top underneath my pant, I had a line of skin exposed all the way down to my mid-thigh. When I had been planning this morning, I hadn't really thought about how I would look to someone else. I just wanted the important stuff covered…

A blush reddened my cheeks as I tried to think of something to say. I had literally just stripped myself without thinking about it. There was only one reason to be here in the medical wing, so I had assumed… I looked away from him to hide my face.

"I-I figured that you'd want to see my wound. It didn't really occur to me that I was, er, am exposing myself." I said, stumbling over my words.

I felt his hand brush across my side and jumped with surprise. His chest pressed into my back as he reached around me to grab my top from where it lay across the bed. His hand on my waist slid across my body until it hovered over the wound in my abdomen while his other pressed my top over my chest, covering me from his gaze. His lips were against my ear as he said, "You really are a handful."

The blush that had been across my cheeks exploded until I felt heat radiating from my face and neck. Was he referring to my breasts? Or was he referring to how much of a pain I was? I couldn't tell! I hesitantly moved to hold my top where he had placed it, though his hand remained where it was over my sternum. In the dimness of the room I could see the glow green light of kaido radiating from his other hand underneath the fabric of my top, healing the wound in my gut.

"I forgot you could do this," I mumbled.

"Make you turn as red as a tomato?" he quipped.

"No," I said sharply.

"Make you strip without asking?" He teased.

"No! Use Kaido!" I half shouted.

"Oh, that," he said with a chuckle.

"I thought you just wanted to look at the wound or something," I mumbled.

"I learned kaido a few years ago, since there hasn't been much else to train with," he said softly, his mouth still close to my ear.

"If you had said what you were going to do, I wouldn't have taken my top off."

"Just because you don't have to strip for me to heal you, doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it."

If I had thought I was red before, it was nothing compared to now. My whole body heated with a blush that had me going stiff with embarrassment.

"Relax," he murmured.

"I can't relax with you relentlessly teasing me," I objected. His hand on my sternum trailed up my neck to my chin. He turned my head with a light touch until I was looking up at him. His mouth covered mine, pausing any thoughts I had in favor of focusing on him. His kiss was soft and teasing, distracting me so much that I almost dropped my top on more than one occasion.

"There," He said against my lips after several long and very enjoyable moments.

"There what?" I asked, my voice slow and dreamy.

"You wound should be healed," he said as he pulled back from me, his hand ghosting across my skin as he moved away. It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about before my brain snapped back into reality.

"Oh," I mumbled as I stepped forward and pulled my top on. Leaving it open, I turned around and leaned back so I could see where the wound had been. The golden threads of reishi were still there, but instead of holding an angry red line of flesh together only a pink line of new skin remained. I ran my hand over it, feeling the roughness of the fraying golden reishi over the smooth skin. "It doesn't even feel tender," I commented.

"Good," he said. I watched as his eyes traveled up from my wound, trailing up my body until they met my own gaze. Trying my best to keep my blush as minimal as possible I pulled my shihakusho around me how it was supposed to be and held it together with my hands. I twirled my index finger at him, silently telling him to turn around. The corner of his lips turned up in a smile and he turned, giving me his back as he walked over to the door. He glanced back at me as he exited, that teasing grin still turning his lips. Quickly I fixed my shihakusho, tucking the top into my sash and situating it under my pants until it laid smoothly against my skin like it was supposed to. There was no mirror in here, so I did my best to guess that I looked okay.

'Someone was having a good time,' I heard my zanpakuto's voice in my head as I adjusted her at my hip.

'You choose now of all times to pipe up?' I responded.

'Did you honestly expect me to stay silent?' she chided back.

'Yes,' I thought firmly back at her as I checked my hair and kanzashi, making sure that they were still sitting correctly. I heard her chiming laughter ring through my head and I resisted the urge to slap her hilt.

I exited the room as soon as I was certain I didn't look any worse for wear. Toshiro was talking to Rangiku a little distance away, his back facing me as they spoke. Trying to act normal I moved over to them.

"That's good," Toshiro said as he turned to gaze across the court yard.

"Lieutenant Omaeda said that Captain Sui Feng should be back today from the human world. I would imagine that she will be looking for you shortly after she returns," Rangiku continued, following his gaze.

"In the meantime, I need to fill you in on what's going on."

Rangiku's gaze shifted to me as I approached. Her eyes lit up with interest as she turned to me and said, "Hello Ms. Yamamoto. I hear that you finally know who you are!"

"Yeah, you could say that," I said with a small laugh as I stopped beside her. "I had no idea."

'Dense,' my zanpakuto whispered in my head.

'Noisy,' I shot back at her.

"I don't know why you didn't know. Having the same name was kind of obvious." She said with a shrug.

"It was a common name where I came from." I replied, trying not to think about what Shunsui had told me. Turning my gaze to the courtyard I watched as several squad members were working to clear the debris from the fight yesterday. Taking care of messes like this was my job in the squad, so clearing the debris was just a temporary measure to make the area useable. Normally I wasn't the one making the mess though…

I moved towards the debris from yesterday, drawing my zanpakuto as I walked.

"Are you sure you're okay to do that?" Rangiku called after me.

"I'm good," I replied as my gaze swept over the area. The hole in the office building was still there, the wall blocked off by tape that stretched the expanse. The glass box I had sealed Amagi in was still standing, one way sheered away and lying beside it. A large crater dented the ground from where Hyorinmaru's ice had impacted the ground. The damage was fairly minimal for a fight, but then again, the fight had been relatively short.

"Tankyu no Unmei, Maebure no Shukufuku," I said as I stopped at the edge of the grass. In a pulse of power my eye sight cleared and my extra sense for reishi spread through the area. My armor started forming on my body starting with the shoulder pauldron that covered my sword arm. I closed my eyes and focused on forming the rest of my armor, pulling the golden bits of it from the air and placing them on my body. It was easier compared to yesterday, the armor taking shape with only my guidance instead of force. I kept a strong note in my mind to contain my spiritual pressure as best as I could.

When I felt the armor finish forming, I opened my eyes and gazed around, taking in everything in the area. My gaze crossed the other squad members who were standing nearby. They had stopped moving some of the rubble from the hole in the office building to face me, their expressions wide with surprise. I felt my zanpakuto push at my power, coaxing me to do something with it. I listened to her will and pulled the chunks of concrete and plaster from around them, turning it all into reishi and moving it away from them in golden wisps of light. I let my senses spread out to cover the area, but I only let myself focus on one type of material at a time.

Concrete.

I pulled the stray concrete that wasn't attached to anything away from its scattered positions on the ground and turned them into silver streams of reishi. I returned them to their original place at the building's wall, mending the broken bonds and reforming the wall.

Plaster.

Bits and pieces of plaster melted into white reishi as my power pushed into them. They too returned to their place on the newly formed wall, covering the concrete with easy and melding perfectly into the rest of the wall.

Wood.

I pulled the broken wood that made up the doors, door frame and flooring and worked to piece them back together. They moved easily with the push of my power, glowing bronze in the light of the sun as I worked. Sensing the fibers and where they had belonged, I mended the pieces until they resumed their original shape and finally placed them where they belonged.

I continued down the list of stray materials in the court yard until all that remained was my glass box of reishi, but even that dissolved back into the ground like water absorbing into the ground and filling the crater left by the wall of ice. Metallic colored flecks of reishi danced in the air around me, remnants of the materials I had been manipulating. It had all been so easy compared to before I had known my zanpakuto's name. I looked down to her blade, turning it so I could see her reflection as my own. Her teal eyes watched me, a relaxed smile making the expression in her eyes shine.

'Look around Herald,' she said in my head.

I glanced up from her blade and let my eyes scan the area. Dozens of squad members had emerged from the buildings surrounding the court yard. Everyone's eyes were on me, watching in awe. I turned around slowly, my eyes running over all the people who had been watching me work. While I had been working, I hadn't thought about how it had looked. It had all just been information in my head, working to finish a job without pushing too much power to distress the weaker soul reapers nearby.

Having turned all the way around I looked back down to my zanpakuto. 'What did I do?' I asked her.

'You've proven yourself,' she said softly.

'I don't understand,' I thought back.

'She who finally belongs to more than just herself,' she replied. 'You've realized that you aren't just Ria Yamamoto. You belong to so many more people now. You belong to a people, 3rd seat of Squad 10. You belong to a family, descendant of Genryusai Yamamoto. You belong to someone, lover of Toshiro Hitsugaya. You belong to me, Herald of Fate.'

I watched her eyes for a long, silent moment as I thought over her words. 'She who belongs,' I thought slowly.

'Yes, Herald. She who belongs.'


	11. She Who Loses

I was perched on the back porch of Rangiku's house, enjoying the light breeze that wafted by as my fingers danced over the strings of my koto. I hadn't been able to sit down and practice since before the festival, so I had made it a point today to set aside time. With all that had been happening lately, it was nice to just sit and do something that seemed normal.

After I had repaired the damage from our fight two days ago, Toshiro had left me in Rangiku's care while he went to talk to the Captain of Squad 2. I hadn't seen him since which wasn't odd, but after all the time we had spent together yesterday it left me just wanting more. I had been so distracted today that Rangiku had given up on making me do her paperwork. Now she lounged beside me, laying across her porch like a lazy cat as I practiced.

"If you keep playing so slow, you're gonna put me to sleep," she complained as she rolled over, propping her chin on her hand.

I rolled my eyes but otherwise ignored her. She had no appreciation for classics.

"Is this really what you do in your free time?" she asked.

"Unlike achieving a level of power or ability, one must keep the rust away by practicing an instrument," I said, half quoting something my old instructor had told me.

"You are so boring," She groaned.

"I could sit here and cross stitch if you'd prefer," I commented as I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.

"That's even worse," my zanpakuto said as she appeared on my other side.

"You're one to talk," I shot back at her. "What do you even do all day?"

"I watch you fumble around like a baby baboon. It is very amusing," she commented with a twinkling laugh.

I drew my eyes away from my koto and glared at her. Both of her teal eyes gleamed with amusement as she watched me. She was sitting with her back propped against one of the porch support beams, her legs turned elegantly to one side so the long fabric of her kimono was splayed out to her side. She wasn't wearing a mask today so much as blue and green feathers emerged from her skin where her eyebrows and cheekbones were and layered back into her hair. Even her eyelashes appeared to be tiny feathers, glowing with a metallic light as the sun hit them. Her kimono was decorated in similar colors, like she had captured the image of a peacock and trapped it inside the fabric. Armor like that of my shikai's covered her, the metal in hues of gold that seemed to warp with the rays of light.

"Ria," Rangiku's hesitant voice came from my other side. "Who is that?"

"Tankyu no Unmei, Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto," I said as I paused my playing to gesture between the two of them. "Rangiku, Tankyu no Unmei. My zanpakuto."

"What?" She half shouted in surprise as she rolled over to sit on her knees. "This is really your zanpakuto?"

I nodded as I resumed playing my koto, my eyes watching my fingers as I stroked the strings with my picks. I heard Rangiku move around me and over to my zanpakuto as they struck up a conversation. How on earth Rangiku could get my zanpakuto to talk about fashion was beyond me. All she spoke to me about was serious stuff… or she made fun of me. I couldn't really complain though. We understood each other better in the last two weeks than we had in the last ten years.

Time flew by for the next while. I listened to Rangiku tell my zanpakuto about fashions in the human world while I ran through song after song on my koto. It was so relaxing and at the same time distracting that when the mood suddenly changed I was stunned into silence. The feeling in the air darkened like a shadow had been cast over me from a dark and ominous presence.

"Ria, what's wrong with your zanpakuto?" Rangiku asked hesitantly.

Slowly I drew my eyes away from my koto to gaze at Tankyu no Unmei. Her eyes were moving frantically around the area. It was like she could see something that we couldn't as her gaze would focus on something for a moment, then dart to look at something else. The peacock feathers that had decorated her kimono seemed to shift and change every time that her gaze stopped, only to shift once more when her eyes moved again.

"She told me once that her appearance was affected by my name for the day," I said quietly as I watched her. She seemed completely consumed by whatever she could see, not showing that she had heard my voice at all.

"If her appearance is changing, what does that mean?" Rangiku asked quietly.

"My name has changed."

Abruptly my zanpakuto stood, the movement so fast that I barely saw her get to her feet. She moved towards me, her face coming so close to mine that I felt her breath on my cheek as she drew our sword from its sheath and said, "Maebure no Shukufuku."

My shikai's armor seemed to explode around my body, the power of it slapping against my mind in a tidal wave of information. I had the odd sensation of falling even though I knew I was still sitting on the porch as I fought to control the power. I pulled myself away from my koto, sliding back on the porch until I knew I was clear of it and rolled over onto my hands and knees. My mind's eye was overwhelming my sense of self as I tried to stuff all the information into categories. Condense, make is smaller… There was just too much. I could sense everything within the barracks area; the grass, the concrete, the wood, people, fabric, papers, voices, heart beats… It was just too much.

"What the hell are you doing?" I bit out as I tried desperately to rein in my senses.

"Your name is changing, Herald. I am going to find who is pulling your fate's strings."

"How are you-"

"I am the Seeker of Fate, Tankyu no Unmei, and you are my Herald," She flicked her sword out to her side as she stepped down from the porch and walked out into the grass. I followed her with my gaze until a pulse of power took my vision, consuming me with my mind's eye. "This is my power. I just allow you to use it."

In my mind's eye, she was dancing with each step she took, a slight crouch with a flourish as she moved. Her sword twirled around her, the tip of the blade forming elegant arcs of light that streamed behind her in banners. When she was several yards away she stopped, and turned towards us, flicking her kimono's skirt with her foot so they lay behind her in an elegant swath of color. She raised her sword in the air, turning it with a flourish so the blade was down. She jerked it down suddenly, slamming the blade into the ground all the way to the hilt. Images exploded across my vision, consuming my mind. Distantly I felt my body fall to the porch as my control over my muscles was lost to me. There was just too much…

'There,' I heard her voice echo through my head. The sound of doors opening swished through my mind and I felt someone's gaze on me. A spark of fear ate through my chest as grey eyes came to the forefront of everything in my head.

My senses seemed to retract from where ever they were like I had been pulled from a pool, the remainders of what I had been engulfed in still clinging to me, but no longer lost in the torrent of it all. My vision came back to me as my zanpakuto withdrew her sword from the ground, her eyes narrowing as she considered the blade. Her teal eyes abruptly flicked to my own, consuming my vision.

'He will try to draw you away,' her voice whispered in my head. 'Do not fall for it, Herald.'

"… is she?"

"I don't know. Her zanpakuto just…"

My head was pounding, a pulsing pain that seemed to emanate through my entire brain. The voices I could hear were all female, but my brain hurt trying to put voices to faces so I didn't try.

"She said her name had changed, then her zanpakuto activated her shikai…"

Geeze, what were they on about?

"Her zanpakuto did that?"

"Yes. I didn't know her zanpakuto had a spiritual pressure like that. I was so caught up in the power that I couldn't do anything but watch."

I moved to roll over, lifting my hand to cover my face. Something cold and sharp bit across my cheek, startling me into opening my eyes. The arm guard from my shikai was still covering my hand and the picks from my koto were still taped to my fingers. But… I wasn't holding my zanpakuto? Whatever. My head hurt too much for me to care. I continued rolling over until I was able to curl into a ball on my non-armored side with my head resting on my arm.

'Your mind wasn't ready for the strain of using your shikai to its full potential,' my zanpakuto's voice echoed through my head.

'I hate you so much right now, you know that, right?' I thought at her, flopping my other arm over my head in a futile attempt to block her out.

'Your name is She Who Loses, but for moments it changes. Be careful today, Herald.'

"Shut. Up." I growled at her.

Silence greeted me for a moment, and I basked in the slightly lessened pain of not thinking. Why couldn't I just pass back out? I would have welcomed the dark abyss of nothingness right now.

"Is she awake?"

The sound of a door sliding open had me gritting my teeth.

"Ria?"

I lifted my arm from where it was covering my face so I could see the parted shoji doors that led outside. My vision was fluctuating between what I could actually see and my mind's eye, the effect of seeing without seeing making my stomach roll with dizziness. Looking into the light felt like stabbing my brain with a hot poker, so I glared at the head that was poking around the parted doors. "Go away," I growled at them.

The door slowly slid closed, the soft tap of the door grating against my mind. I dropped my arm, hiding in the darkness it provided.

"Is she okay?" a feminine voice whispered.

I wanted to roll my eyes, but it hurt too much so I didn't bother.

"She's grumpy," another voice said. "I don't think I've seen a look that scary from her. Like, ever."

"I bet she gets it from Lieutenant Nanao."

It really was too much effort to yell at them, but I wanted too…

"Send Toshiro in there. I'll bet she doesn't give him the death glare she gave me."

"Why would Captain Hitsugaya not get the same reaction that you got, Captain Abarai?"

"Oh, you haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Toshiro and Ria are dating!"

"If that's true, sending him in there is certain to prematurely end their relationship."

"No way. You should see the way she gets distracted thinking about him. It's so cute."

Giggling burst out from numerous female voices, the sound of it making my head feel like it was going to burst. I was going to kill Rangiku…

The door to the room I was in slid open quietly and I heard someone walk in. I opened one eye and shifted my arm just enough to see someone's feet as they turned to close the door behind them. I closed my eye and tried to ignore them, covering my eyes once more.

"They are insufferable," Toshiro muttered under his breath.

"Yes," I grumbled in reply.

My mind's eye honed in on him as he moved towards me before his hand brushed across my arm guard. I let my arm slide away from my face to lie across the floor and tried my best not to cringe as my head throbbed with the movement. His fingers brushed across my temple in a feather light touch that had my face cringing with pain.

"Your head?" He asked as his fingers left my temple to brush across the exposed skin beneath my arm guard.

I hummed a short note of agreeance.

"What happened?"

I groaned and buried my face into my arm.

"She wasn't ready for what I did," my zanpakuto said. I thought for a moment that she was talking in my head, but then I felt the touch of silk brush across my forehead. Unlike any other touch or movement, this seemed to sooth the pain in my head ever so slightly.

"What did you do exactly?" he asked.

"I found the one responsible," she replied softly as her hand stroked through my hair. "The one responsible for changing Ria's names."

"Are they the same person who has been behind the attacks?"

My zanpakuto didn't say anything as she pulled my kanzashi from my chignon. For the brief moment that her hand left my hair the pain came roaring back in my head with a vengeance, making my body tense and curl into a tighter ball. Her hand easily returned to my hair, pulling the ribbon from my chignon so her fingers could run through my locks. Gently she coaxed me to relax and pulled my upper body out of its ball until I was draped across her lap, my head resting on her forearm as her other hand continued to stroke through my hair.

"There are rules that must be followed," she said after a long moment. "I am the Seeker of Fate, Tankyu no Unmei. I see what fate has in store. I am not one who changes fate, who creates fate, or who defends fate. But, when someone tampers with fate I am allowed to protect my herald. Even if protecting her means breaking some of the rules."

"Did you break your rules today? And that is why Ria was incapacitated?" He asked. I felt his hand take my own, pulling my palm into his lap as his fingers curled over the armor of my arm guard.

"Yes and no." She replied. "I did not break the rules, but to do so I abused the connection between us. She was not ready for the power. Like funneling a river through a brittle straw, I damaged her mind. One day she will be strong enough to do what I did without suffering like this, but for now I shall tend to her. Repair what has been broken."

"You are not a normal zanpakuto, are you?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Is Hyorinmaru a normal zanpakuto? Was Muramasa? What about Kyoka Suigetsu? Tenken? What is normal when it comes to the other half of a Soul Reaper's soul?"

"Quit being all wise sounding and shit," I grumbled as I rolled onto my back, my shoulder pauldron pressing into my zanpakuto's waist. I gazed up at her from where my head was resting in her arm, taking in the way the feathers that covered her face seemed to glow with the light from the window shining behind her.

"Would you prefer that I sound dense and slow like you do?" She quipped back at me. I rolled my eyes, but caught myself as a stab of pain shot through the front of my head and scrunched my eyes closed. Her fingers rubbed into my hair line, soothing the pain until it was just a dull ache.

After a moment I asked, "What were those doors I heard?"

"A senkaimon," she answered with a hushed tone. "I didn't realize you picked up on what I saw."

"I heard doors and a sense of dread as I saw his eyes in my head," I said as I thought back. My head protested, but with her hand touching my skin the pain was bearable. "The same eyes that everyone else had."

"He resides in the Human World," my zanpakuto said. "But, he possesses a zanpakuto. A former soul reaper, I'm certain."

"What else can you tell us about him?" Toshiro asked.

"You are not as sensitive to spiritual pressures as my Herald is, but she can share with you the knowledge of what he feels like. Should you ever encounter him, you will know who he is."

"I don't know what he feels like," I protested.

"What did you think that sense of dread you described was?" she said, quirking her head to the side as she gazed down at me. "To someone like you, non-combat oriented and fragile, it may feel like dread. But, to someone like your captain, he will feel much like any other opponent."

I wanted to take offense to what she had said, but I caught myself and instead of glaring back at her I turned my gaze to the ceiling. I didn't like to think of myself as fragile, but I really was. Durable wasn't a word anyone would use to describe me…

My zanpakuto drew her hand away from my hair and rested it on my breast plate. "I am controlling our shikai at the moment, and I will continue to do so until our bond is repaired. Don't do anything stupid until I am done, Herald."

"Isn't it kinda redundant to tell me not to do something when you already know what's going to happen?" I sniped at her as I shifted to give her my best flat glare.

"Perhaps I enjoy watching you squirm," she laughed lightly and abruptly vanish. For a moment, I remained where I was in the air, as if her body was still there supporting my back and head but after a moment I dropped like a rock to the floor. My mind's eye flared sending nausea rolling through me as the world churned around me before it clicked off and I was left with only my closed eyes to see through. Her light laughter echoed through my head as I reached up to rub where the back of my head had connected with the floor.

"I swear I am going to get revenge for this shit one day," I growled as I moved slowly to sit up. Without my zanpakuto touching me, my head didn't hurt like it had but it still ached like a deep bruise. I placed my sword arm behind me to hold my body up as I ran my other through my hair to pull it away from my face.

"How is your head?" Toshiro asked from beside me. I blinked slowly to make sure my mind's eye wasn't going to flare up before I glanced over to him. He was sitting beside me, his arm held out as if he meant to catch me if my arm gave out.

I gave him a small smile and moved to fully sit up as I turned towards him, my legs bent at my side. "Hurts still, but not near as badly."

"Captain Sui Feng and I only returned a short while ago, but according to Rangiku you've only been unconscious for a short time," he said.

I nodded slowly and glanced around at the room. It wasn't Rangiku's house I was in like I had expected, this place looked familiar… "Where are we?"

"The Ise Manor," he replied. "Rukia found you and Rangiku just after your zanpakuto released your shikai. She had you both brought here. She, Lieutenant Nanao, Rangiku, Captain Sui Feng and your sister are just outside."

I let out a sigh and dropped my gaze down to look at my armor. I knew why my zanpakuto had done it, using our power to search for him, but I almost wished she hadn't. I didn't like being a burden to everyone. I knew that they didn't see it that way, but I sure did sometimes. I did my best to keep my life as a soul reaper away from my sister, and now here I was throwing it in her face. She must have been so worried…

"Ria," he murmured as his hand rested over my own. I shook my head, but quickly stopped as the movement made my mind's eye kick in. I clamped my eyes closed as the extra sense overtook my sight, filling my head with information. I tried to shove it back down, but it was like trying to stop a river without a dam. It just kept coming, the sight expanding until I could see the entire room and then the manor and the people inside. The power abruptly vanished, but came back a moment later, stronger than it had been before.

"Where is my zanpakuto?" I asked between clenched teeth.

"She has it," he replied quickly, understanding that I was asking for my sword and not her. "Can you control it?"

"No," I said sharply. "I can't turn it off. It's like it's got of a mind of its ow-" my words clipped as pain roared through my head and I let out a hissing groan. I didn't let myself curl up into another ball like I wanted to, instead bowing my head and stiffening my body. The more my vision flared, the worse it got, like the expanding vision directly correlated to the pain in my head. Was my zanpakuto looking for someone again, or was my head just trying to recreate the event?

'It's not me,' her voice chimed in as if on command.

'Then fix it, damn it.' I demanded.

'It takes time…'

"Ria," Toshiro cooed as I felt his hands slide into my hair on either side of my head. The touch only made my sight focus on him instead of expanding and I started to pull away. His fingers flexed and he pulled me back towards him. I opened my eyes despite not being able to see and tried to figure out what he was doing. My mind's eye normally functioned like overly detailed vision, seeing through and into things that my naked eye couldn't, but without being able to control the power everything around me was just a mix of layers and colors in my head. There was no depth, no separation, everything was just there, cluttering my head with incomprehensible information.

"Your eyes are like your zanpakuto's," he commented softly.

"Is she looking at you, or am I?" I asked with a whisper.

"You are both the same person," he replied just before his mouth covered mine. I closed my eyes on instinct as he kissed me, my hands lifting to knot in the fabric of his haori. His spiritual pressure rose as I relaxed into him, his hands still holding my head guiding me to lean forward until I was pressed against him. "Let me in," his voice rumbled against my lips. I hesitated at his words, barely understanding what he was asking until I felt his spiritual pressure rise higher. It wasn't like something turning on, so much as a tidal wave of power that engulfed me.

A thrill of something shot up my spine at the feel of his power. Cold sweat was suddenly slicking my skin as I moved to pull away from him, panic controlling my movement. He was so strong. I had known in my head that his reiatsu was unimaginable compared to mine, but feeling it… Oh god, it was too much. I knew I shouldn't have been afraid, but I couldn't help myself. I was a baby rabbit in the arms of a dragon, and even though I knew he wasn't going to eat me, I was looking at his teeth all the same.

"Don't fight me," he murmured as one of his hands left my head to wrap around me, holding me where I was. "I can help you control your power until you can do it yourself."

"Y-you'll consume me," I confessed as my body started to shake with the strain of keeping myself from freaking out.

"I'll do a lot more than that."

… What? Was he flirting with me? Right now? Or was my mind just turning dirty?

His hand slid back to grip the back of my head as he forced me to press tightly to his body. His power exploded through me. Ice shot through my veins as his reiatsu, his spiritual pressure, wrapped mine like a sleeve, the sensation confining and absolute. I struggled against it, I couldn't help myself. I knew what he was doing, I knew that I needed to stop resisting him and let my reiatsu meld with his, but I just couldn't. I was so freaked out that I couldn't think through what I was doing. I pushed against him, but his arms held me where I was. His spiritual pressure was so different from my own. It was like ice grating through my veins, seizing my heart with cold and freezing my bones. I had to get away. I had to!

"Let me in…" he whispered into my hair. "Trust me."

I hesitated in my struggles when I heard his voice. I did trust him, I really did. He wouldn't hurt me, not on purpose, but convincing the panic sitting in my chest that he wouldn't… I gave up. I resigned myself to his will and relaxed into him, nuzzling my nose into his haori instead of trying to push away. The pain in my head scorched my mind as my sight tried to expand, but it stopped, shrinking back as Toshiro's spiritual pressure engulfed me. Now that I wasn't fighting it, it was like a cool breeze flowing through me. It mixed with my own power, soothing my mind's eye and chasing away the pain in my head. It felt… it felt so good…

I think I blacked out for a while, opening my eyes to find my head cradled in the crook of his shoulder and my body lying across his lap. A wet cloth dabbed at my brow, the warmth of it surprising me and making me startle.

"Good morning," my sister's voice greeted me as I tried to blink away my blurry vision. My head didn't hurt… There was a slight straining feeling in my mind when I turned my head so I could look at her, but that was it. No pain… What on earth had Toshiro done?

"Is it still morning?" I asked her slowly, my voice a little rough sounding.

"Not even close," she said, her warm smile illuminating her face. Her hair was braided to the side today, the long black strands pulled over her shoulder to drape down to her waist.

"Pregnancy looks good on you," I joked, knowing full well the lecture I was going to be avoiding by bringing it up in front of someone else.

"Thanks," she grumbled, her expression darkening to a very scary glare for only a moment… or it would have been scary to someone else. To me, it was funny. Her gaze flicked up for a moment to look at Toshiro before it returned to my own. "You look terrible, but you feel better than when you first arrived here."

"How did I feel?" I asked. She had some sense for spiritual pressure, though it was minimal due to lack of training. Since we felt similar, she could always gauge my spiritual pressure to some degree.

"Sick, or uneven like an intermittent signal. Now you feel steady, but so… cold."

"I temporarily shared my reiatsu with her, to keep her own steady for a time," Toshiro said.

Her gaze slowly slid up to him, her eyes narrowing in a judgmental look as she said, "Don't think that just because Ria likes you, that I like you. You are going to have to do a lot more than fancy kido/kaido mumbo jumbo to earn my approval."

"I am aware," he said in reply.

"How long was I out this time?" I asked as a distraction as I moved to sit up. Toshiro's hand moved to my back, helping to ease my body up to vertical until I was sitting just beside him, my hip pressed against his leg. His hand stayed subtly pressed against my back, hidden by how closely we were sitting.

"Long enough," she answered promptly. "You are not allowed to come back to me in such a state ever again. You will be healthy and conscious from now on. Am I understood?"

"I understand," I replied with a soft smile. "Had I been able to object, I wouldn't have allowed us to come here. I am sorry Mio."

"Just don't get hurt again and it won't be an issue," she said as her mouth set in a stiff line. I knew she was trying to keep herself from looking concerned. I had seen the same look on her face when I told her that I was going to join the Spiritual Arts Academy and several times after. My sister wasn't stupid. She knew that being a soul reaper could be dangerous, and she knew that the higher in rank that we became the more danger we would most likely be put in. She was a giant bundle of worry when it came to my safety. I did my best to not bring up any details of dangerous situations that I was or could be in, and she did her best to ignore her urges to baby me.

"Could you give us a moment?" I asked her, referring to Toshiro and I.

"Absolutely not," she replied as she dropped the cloth she had been dabbing my forehead with in a bowl at her side. I started to ask her why, but she continued, "If I hadn't been so distracted by Lady Rukia and Rangiku I would have never allowed you to be alone with a man in a private room. He may try to take advantage of you, even if he is your captain."

"Mio!" I half shouted her name. "What kind of an accusation is that?"

"I don't understand all this spirit energy, pressure, reiatsu non-sense," she said as she gestured vaguely at the both of us. "But I do understand that you are a lady, he is a man, you two work together and I walked in here to find you in his arms. From the stories I've heard from Rangiku, you two are no longer allowed to be alone in this house. It isn't proper conduct for a lady, even if you are seeing each other. Proper courting takes months if not years of interaction before you are allowed to be so familiar with one another."

"I heard from Uncle Shunsui that you were only seeing Daichi for 6 months before you two were married," I shot back at her.

Her eyes widened as a blush lit her cheeks. She was at a loss for words for a moment until her expression changed and her whole face grew red. "You can't go around calling the heir to the Kyoraku Clan 'Uncle'! I thought you grew out of that bad habit! Shouldn't you be calling him Head Captain anyway?" She accused me.

"Don't change the subject," I quickly interjected. "How long were you two dating before you were engaged? Two months? Three at the most?"

"I wasn't a lady like we are now. The proper mannerisms didn't apply at the time," she objected.

"Are you saying that Daichi's mannerisms were in question at the time? Shouldn't he have had the sense of what 'proper courting' was?" I said, making quotation marks with my hands.

"You know very well that your bother in-law's sense of etiquette is impeccable!" She half shouted. Oh, this was just too good. Getting my sister flustered was such a rare occurrence. I just had to keep going…

"I don't know, he is pretty dense. Just how long did it take him to guess the cookie hint?" I asked her as a devious grin turned my lips.

"He didn't guess! Lady Nanao completely spoiled it after you told her the next day!"

Oh… crap.

"Technically I told Uncle Shunsui, and she just over heard," I said with an embarrassed laugh.

"It doesn't matter!" She almost shouted, her voice raising to a squeak. "I wasn't going to tell her until I had no choice! She is worse than our mother ever was about children! I am three months pregnant. Three months! And she is already planning the baby shower, picking out colors for the nursery and interviewing nannies!"

"She wants to make sure you are well taken care of," I tried to assure her.

Her eyes seemed to bulge from her head, "This is my baby! She may be the head of the clan, but this child is going to be mine! She can train her to be a priestess all she wants, but the baby is mine!"

"If you keep getting so worked up, it won't be good for your baby," I said, trying to distract her from her current train of thought.

"I am only three months pregnant!" She squeaked. "If I want to get worked up, I will! You deserve it!"

The door to the room slid open and we both turned to look. Lady Nanao stood in the open doorway, her gaze fixated on my sister. "Is everything alright in here?"

"We are fine, Lady Nanao," my sister quickly responded as she schooled her face and posture. "We were just discussing recent events." She turned back to me, her eyes pleasant until she knew that Lady Nanao couldn't see her expression and she released a monstrous glare. I pointedly avoided her gaze, keeping an innocent expression on my face as I looked at Lady Nanao.

"You shouldn't be stressing yourself Mio," Lady Nanao tutted as she walked over to my sister and offered her hand. "Come, some fresh air will do you good."

The evil glare that had been focused on me vanished as Mio took Lady Nanao's hand and pretended to use it as she stood. "Thank you," she said politely as she followed her to the door. She sent me a sharp glare over her shoulder before she vanished through the doorway.

I was in such deep shit the next time my sister caught me alone…

"From the way you speak of her and the way she acted before you woke, I imagined her to be more of a mother figure to you. I wouldn't have guessed that by your interactions just now," Toshiro said, drawing my attention away from the doorway.

"She's mad at me. Normally she acts like how you thought, but until she gets it out of her system, I think I'm going to be on her naughty list," I said as I turned to him. His aquamarine gaze was focused on me, watching my movements as I turned my body so I could face him instead of straining to look at him. His hand shifted with me, trailing from resting on my back to my outer thigh as I settled with the line of my hip pressed to his leg as he sat with his legs crossed. My shikai armor was still on me, so instead of leaning to the side and resting my weight on my arm I sat up straight.

"So," I started but hesitated for a moment. "What exactly did you do?"

"You aren't well versed in kaido, correct?" He asked me.

"No," I said with a slight shake of my head. "I understand the concept behind it though."

"Normally, healing someone involves replenishing their reiatsu, and then using that to heal the body. Your reiatsu was chaotic and unstable with your shikai active and your bond with your zanpakuto damaged. Instead of replenishing your reiatsu, I forced yours to accept some of mine, allowing me to stabilize your shikai temporarily."

A slow smile crept up to my face. "So, you put a little piece of you inside me? Such a guy thing to do."

"It's only temporary," he quickly said. "Aside from making you sleep until your zanpakuto is finished, there was nothing else I could do to ease your pain."

"Thank you," I said as I reached out and rested my hand on his chest. "I don't know what I'd do without you to pick up the mess I tend to make of myself."

"There wouldn't be a you," he murmured as his hand closed over mine. His gaze was soft as he looked at me. Without him saying anything I knew that I wasn't a bother or a burden to him. Even before anything was between us, I hadn't been a nuisance. It was just how he was. But now I was more than a job description to him. Now… now I was something more and I never wanted it to change.

"I want you to always look at me this way," I whispered.

"Are you sure?" He asked as his expression changed into something heated. I instantly was reminded of the other day in the medical wing as his gaze trailed down from my face ever so slowly until I knew he was staring at my chest intentionally.

A blush heated my cheeks and I started to smack his arm playfully, but stopped short remembering my arm guard and instead giggled to myself. "You are terrible." His gaze met mine once more and he started to say something, but caught himself as his gaze focused on something behind me. I had my back to the door, so I had to assume someone was standing there.

"Captain Sui Feng," he said as he lowered my hand from his chest, but still held it.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but my men are actively tracking Takeshi Nakai. He was spotted a few minutes ago entering the Soul Society from Kira Clan's private Senkaimon. Will you be joining us as we search for him?"

"Go ahead, I'll catch up with you in a moment," he said as his gaze came back down to me. I listened to Captain Sui Feng's footsteps until they abruptly vanished.

"Who is that?" I asked once I knew that we were alone again.

"Takeshi Nakai is the stealth force member who we suspect has been possessed just like 4th seat Kyrouni was. The same man that attacked you at the warehouse."

I blinked at him for a moment. A name for the face… He wasn't someone trying to kill me after all. He was just another puppet like Amagi had been. "What are you going to do to him?"

"If we can't free him from whatever is controlling him or capture him, I will kill him," his voice was matter-of-fact, like killing Takeshi Nakai was a little concern to him. My eyes softened and I found myself coming to my knees. I knelt while he remained sitting and I rested my sword hand on his shoulder as I kissed him. I meant only for it to be a short kiss, but his hand still on my thigh flexed and I became distracted for a moment. Remembering myself, I pulled back from him and gave him a very direct gaze.

"Be careful," I murmured.

"You stay here, in the Ise Manor. If he evades the stealth force he may come here, after you and your sister. Without your shikai, you cannot defend yourself," he said as he kissed me again. "The wards around the estate will keep those who do not belong out. You are safe here."

"I'll be here," I replied. "Just… don't take too long. You'll make me worry."

He kissed me again before he left, leaving me sitting alone in the room. I stayed where I was for a while, my back to the door as I remembered the feeling of his hand on my thigh. The way he kissed me so tenderly… My sister may have been right about our relationship being improper, but I didn't care. Maybe it was just because I could feel him on my skin, his spiritual pressure clinging to me like frost on a winter's morning, but I wanted nothing more than to immerse myself in everything that was him.

Shaking my head I came to my feet and left the room. I stepped out onto the porch and stopped to take a moment to orient myself in the manor. They had put me in one of the guest rooms instead of my old room, putting me on the opposite side of the compound from where I normally roamed. It was closer to the staff quarters rather than the family rooms, putting me only a building or two away from the kitchens and directly across from the dining hall.

I heard low female voices coming from my right, so I turned to investigate. In the room beside the one I had been in there was a medium sized kotatsu table set up in the center of the room. Sitting at the table Lady Rukia, Lady Nanao and Rangiku sat, fussing over some papers they had laid out before them. They were so immersed in whatever they were looking at, that they didn't even notice me as I poked my head around the corner to observe them for a moment. Silently I backed up, not wanting to be confronted by their questions or comments. Surely, they had heard everything next door. They were so close and the rooms were only separated by shoji doors.

Normally it wouldn't have bothered me that people had overheard our conversation, but Lady Rukia was right there. Since she had married Renji, she's turned into a sort of match maker. Every relationship in the 13 court guard squads had probably been influenced in one way or another by her. I didn't think she had gotten her fingers on Toshiro and I yet, but I really didn't want to know. Turning away from the room I opened my senses to feel my sister… but I couldn't. Normally my ability to sense people was as easy as scenting the air, but now all I could feel was Toshiro's spiritual pressure.

Oh…

I understood exactly what he had done.

He had infused his spiritual pressure into my own, but he'd set a limit on what it could do. With my own power fluctuating, it was the best way for him to ensure that I wouldn't have to worry about losing control. I would have no control at all. He had made me mostly defenseless, but like he said, it was the only other option besides forcing me to sleep which would have made me completely helpless. I really couldn't leave the Ise Manor...

Letting out a small sigh I set out to find my sister. I wasn't able to protect her in my current state, but at least I could be with her while I waited for him to return. Surely, she couldn't be that mad at me still.

Wandering into the kitchen first I had to step out of the way of several staff members who were busily carrying items to and fro. My sister was where I figured she would be, occupying a section of counter in front of one of the windows. Her back was to me as she fiddled with whatever pastry or desert she was making. I walked up behind her and rested my chin on her shoulder. I was a little bit shorter than her, but I made up for it by standing on my tiptoes so I could look down at what her hands were doing.

"You were smart to come see me while I'm in the kitchen," she grumbled as she placed a little blue sphere on top of a custard she had coated some tea cakes in. It looked like she had just started on the tiny deserts, one other finished one set aside on a wire tray.

"Because you won't try to brain me with a pan?" I asked playfully.

"No, because I don't want to ruin my tea cakes. If I stop to beat you with random utensils, I might break my cakes." She made it a point to emphasize her words as they pertained to violent actions. She let out a long, frustrated sigh before she tilted her head to rest it against mine. "Never mind that. No use in getting mad over spilt milk."

"Love you too, Mio."

She continued decorating her tea cakes as I watched from her shoulder. Baking wasn't something that my sister actually liked to do, but decorating things was a passion of hers. She was so good at using frosting and other materials to create pieces of art on top of food that she had considered opening her own little bakery. She had eventually decided against it though, saying that turning her hobby into a job would make it unenjoyable.

"I was totally unimpressed with your Captain, by the way," she commented out of the blue.

"What? Why?" I asked in surprise.

"He's so serious," she said, sticking her tongue out. "And stiff too. And that flat, annoyed stare that he gives just about everyone, ugh. I don't know how you can like a guy like that."

"He's different with me," I said quietly as I wrapped my unarmored arm around her waist in a hug.

"He better be. I mean, he even looks weird. What's with that white hair of his? He doesn't look even remotely old enough to have that kind of hair."

I laughed lightly as I said, "It's part of him, just like this armor is part of me. He is just so powerful that it effects his appearance."

"You're not chasing him because he's strong, are you?"

"Really?" I asked her in a flat tone.

"I have to ask," She said with a shrug.

"No, I'm not. If I wanted to chase rank I could have done that long ago." I said, rolling my eyes even though I knew she couldn't see me.

"Good point," she said as she picked up one of the finished tea cakes and held it up for me to take.

"Oh," I murmured as I stepped from behind her and took the tea cake.

"To finding love in all sorts of strange places," she said as she held one up of her own and tapped it against mine like a toast. We shared a very similar smile and promptly stuffed the cakes in our mouths, chewing happily in unison. Anyone watching us would have been able to tell we were related.

I swallowed the tea cake in one giant gulp, surprised by how hard it was to actually get down. It was like I hadn't chewed it very well, but I knew that I had. Tea cakes were light and easy to chew, but something wasn't right… Something surged through me, like a power was trying to take me over. My spiritual pressure surged for only a moment, squashing the power like I would have stomped on a bug.

I dropped to my knees as I started coughing, the bits of tea cake expelling from my throat before I could swallow it all the way. With my fit of coughs a small blue orb bounced across the ground, hitting the cabinets before rolling back to me. I clutched my chest as my coughing eased until I was spitting out what remained of tea cake. I reached down and picked up the little blue orb, lifting it so I could look closer at it. I hadn't thought anything of it when my sister was putting these on the tea cakes, but it looked a lot like a soul candy. It was just the wrong color… Soul candies were green, not blue…

"Ria," my sisters voice came out in a harsh whisper. I stood abruptly, tucking the blue orb into my sleeve so I could look at it later. I turned to my sister and stepped back with surprise. Her normally chocolate eyes were flashing colors, one moment chocolate brown, the next a flat grey. Her lips were trembling with the effort to form words as she stared at nothing.

"M-Mio, what's wrong?"

"Th-There's something… in my head," her voice came out, broken with the struggle she was going through to speak. Her face scrunched like she was in pain, then it abruptly slacked. She closed her eyes as her body sagged forward, her arms dropping to her sides. I started to move towards her, to catch her if she fell, but abruptly she let out a howling laugh that I had never heard come from her lips before.

"Ria darling," She said as she arms spread dramatically. "I'm here to make you suffer!" She cheered as she turned, giving me her back. I watched her in shocked horror as she danced through the kitchen. The staff in the room had all stopped what they were doing to watch her as she moved around them and slipped out the exit.

I startled once she was out of my sight, closing my gaping jaw. What the hell… I pulled the blue orb from my sleeve and looked down at it, trying to puzzle out what had happened. Soul Candies were for removing a soul from a gigai. I had never heard of them being developed for taking over a soul. It just wasn't possible. Something had to be empty in order to be possessed… What the hell!

Coming to my senses, I stuffed the orb back into my sleeve and ran after my sister. I couldn't feel her, so I tried to guess where she had gone. I ran down the porches as I looked for her, but no matter where I had gone, she wasn't there. Her room, the patio, the dining hall… She wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Ria, what's wrong?" Rukia's voice caught my attention as I ran down the porch.

I didn't stop moving, shouting over my shoulder, "Mio's been possessed. I can't find her!"

I heard them talking to each other, deciding on a plan of action as I left them behind. I ran past the front entrance to the manor and almost tripped over my own feet as I spotted her. She was just on the outside of the gate, her back to the manor as she spoke to someone. Someone in a black stealth force outfit…

"Mio! Get back inside the wards!" I ordered.

She turned to me, grey eyes lit with amusement as she smiled at me. "Oh, silly Ria, it's perfectly safe out here. You should come join us too," she said as she waved me over. I ran towards her, but stopped just inside of the gate, my eyes darting between hers and the stealth force man's.

"Takeshi Nakai," I said as he grey gaze met mine.

"Oh," he mused. "It seems that they've finally noticed an absence in the ranks."

"Give me back my sister," I demanded.

"Come out here and I will think about it," he said, his eyes twinkling with a smile that was hidden by his mask.

My sister covered her mouth with the fabric of her sleeve as her eyes changed from grey to chocolate for a brief moment, "Ria, help me!"

I started to move towards her, but stopped myself. If I went out there, I was as good as dead. I knew he was using my sister as bait. They wanted to kill both of us, but if he couldn't enter the Ise Clan's grounds then he had to get me out. It was just a wicked plot, but… she was my sister! How else was I supposed to save her? Her eyes shifted back to grey as I watched, her gaze focusing on me before she shrugged.

"It was worth a shot," she grumbled.

"Mio!" I heard Daichi's voice just as he passed me, going through the gate to the outside. I didn't even have a chance to stop him, to say anything, before he jerked back. Blood flung through the air as Takeshi struck with his sword, slicing Daichi across his chest and stomach. I just stood there, watching as his body fell to the ground, bouncing slightly with the impact.

"No!" I screamed as I lunged forward and through the gate. I saw Takeshi's strike as he swung at me and I used my arm guard to take the blow as I stepped over Daichi's fallen form. He swung at me again, and I shifted my body to take the hit with my shoulder pauldron as I grabbed the fabric of Daichi's shirt and threw him back through the gate. My movement left me open to attack, but there was nothing I could do about it. His blade bit into my side, but it didn't puncture me, instead sliding down my armored obi until it ended and sliced through my exposed hip. The mesh armor of my obi didn't look like metal, and he had mistakenly gone for what would have normally been my softest parts.

I assumed my best defensive stance for hand to hand combat, angling my armored side towards him in preparation of defending his blows. I knew I was at a disadvantage against him. Even if he was being controlled by someone else, he was a member of the stealth force. They specialized in shunpo, whereas I specialized in my shikai.

He stepped between Mio and myself, hiding her smaller body in his shadow as he dropped his stance. He pointed his index finger at me. "Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six!"

My eyes widened and I moved to dart back through the gates to the Ise Manor. I couldn't stop him from using his bakudo. I simply wasn't strong enough to react like that. Even if I was able to call on Danku, without an incantation it would break under the pressure of his incanted bakudo and trap me.

"Bakudo #61. Rikujokoro!"

The beams of light caught me in mid air just before my body made it through the gate, but my momentum kept me moving until I landed on the ground only inches inside the gate. I couldn't move, even as my body was frozen in the position I had been in when I had jumped. Such was the power of the Rikujokoro, I was completely immobilized and barely able to breathe. My body slowly fell to the side, landing so that I could see the tops of their heads in the corner of my vision.

"You idiot," Mio spat. "Now how are we supposed to take her with us?"

"You could go in there and get her," he shot back.

Mio let out an exasperated sigh, but caught herself as she looked up. "Captain Abarai is coming," she said quickly. Takeshi glanced up and past me before he turned and threw my sister over his shoulder.

"Hey, be careful you oaf. I'm pregnant!" she yelled at him just before he took off in a flash step.

Mio… tears wet my eyes as I stared at the empty space that had been. My sister… They had taken my sister!

I couldn't move. I couldn't feel her. I couldn't do anything. I was useless. Even Daichi…

Tears fell from my eyes as I stared blankly at the empty gateway. If I hadn't been so weak… If I had been better prepared… If I had paid better attention… If I had… If…

"Ria," Lady Rukia's said, her footsteps sounding behind me. I barely heard her over the sound of my despair. Mio was as good as dead... and her unborn child…

I heard the slide of a sword being unsheathed and was abruptly released from the bakudo. My body shifted as I fell to lay flat on the ground, but it served to do nothing for me. I slowly reached out to where my sister had been, my arm falling slack with my fingers out stretched. She who loses… I wasn't supposed to lose my sister. Why couldn't I have lost something else?

"Daichi," Nanao's voice cried out.

Slowly I rose to my hands and knees, my eyes never leaving the spot just outside the gate. I should have grabbed her instead of Daichi. I should have tried to restrain her with a bakudo. I should have tried to do more than I did. She would never have forgiven me if I had tried to save her instead of her husband though. But still…

"His injury isn't life threatening," Rangiku's voice said calmly. "I'll start healing, but we need to get him inside."

Moving one limb at a time I crawled towards the gate. If I could just feel her spiritual pressure, I would know where she had gone. Then I could follow. If the wards on the Ise manor hadn't kept Takeshi from reaching me, he would have killed me. I knew it was a stupid idea. Those stupid little soul candies… I should have been paying more attention. I should have realized what they were.

"I thought they couldn't enter the wards?" Rukia asked.

"He must have gone outside the gate. The wards here are only meant to keep people who have never entered the grounds before, out." Nanao quickly explained. "It will not keep objects or people who have entered before from coming back."

I stopped crawling once I reached the gateway. I sat back in the center of it, my arms lax at my sides as I stared out. If I went out there in my current state, they would surely kill me. What could I do? What could… my zanpakuto do?

'Tankyu no Unmei, can you find her?' I thought to her.

Her voice was hesitant as she responded, 'If I hadn't damaged our connection, yes.'

'If I forced the connection, could you do it?'

'Yes, but you shouldn't.'

'I don't care. Give me our sword.'

'This will change your name, Herald. This was not part of your fate.'

'I don't care, give me our sword!' I demanded.

'This may get you killed,' she protested.

'I don't fucking care. Give me our goddamn sword!' I shouted at her in my head. 'You may not be able to change fate, but I sure as hell can.'

I could feel her regret in my heart as our sword appeared in my hand. I clenched the blade as I rose to kneel on one knee. My bond may have been damaged, but I would force it to work like I had been doing for years. I slammed the blade down through my thigh, completely piercing through my leg until her tip bit into the ground. Even with Toshiro's spiritual pressure regulating my own, my shikai's power shot up like a rocket as my blood fueled it. I had aimed for my inner thigh, for the artery there, but not a single drop of blood fell to the ground from my blade as my zanpakuto absorbed it like sponge.

'Find her!' I commanded my zanpakuto.

'It may kill you if I do this,' she warned me.

"Who is the master here? This may be your power, but you are my zanpakuto. Do as I say!" I shouted out loud.

"Ria, what are you doing?" Rukia's asked from behind me. I ignored her.

"Self-sacrifice," my zanpakuto said aloud. "Don't make me do this Herald."

"Tankyu no Unmei, I know you can do it. Our bond may not be fixed, but I don't need it to use your power," I said as I ground the blade of our sword harder into my leg. If she wouldn't do it, I would do it. I let my senses spread out, my mind focused on one thing. Mio. Information flooded my mind, but with such a strong directive I ignored it all. Where was she… Where was she damn it?

The part of my spiritual pressure that belonged to Toshiro flared inside me just before his hand clasped over the handguard of my sword. He completely surprised me as he pulled my sword from my body before I could react, turning it with a swift flick of his wrist which effectively forced my hand to release the hilt. The power I had gained from sacrificing my blood to my zanpakuto vanished as soon as my hand left the hilt, leaving me wide eyed and panting. Without my zanpakuto to absorb the blood, my thigh bled freely and quickly formed a puddle underneath me.

"What the hell are you doing?" He demanded as his hand clamped down on my inner thigh, just above the wound I had made. His grip was painfully tight as he pressed down, using just his strength to block the blood flow from my artery.

"They took my sister!" I half shouted as I got over my surprise. I started to reach for my sword, but he tossed it away behind me. I started to scramble after it, but his grip on my leg kept me from going anywhere. I had to find her! Why didn't he understand that?

"She's already gone," His voice was sharp, but it barely even phased me through the panic that was running through my head. "We found them just as-"

"I can't feel her," I interrupted him. "She's going to die and I can't even feel her!"

"Calm down Ria," he urged me. "She will be okay."

"No, she won't!" I objected as I pulled the soul candy from my sleeve and held it up. "She's not even there, she's someone else!"

"You're not making any sense. You need to calm down," he tried to coax me down.

I could hear myself breathing faster and faster as I tried to think, tried to process. I couldn't do it. I had failed. I had lost my sister, and I was too pathetic to save her.

No…

No, I needed my sword. I could find her. I didn't have to be useless! "Let me go," I said shakily as I gripped Toshiro's arm. "I can find her, I just need my zanpakuto."

"You can't find her Ria," He said as his other hand pulled mine away from his arm. "She's not in the Soul Society."

"W-what?" I asked, blinking dumbly up at him.

"They took her to the Human World."

"H-How? They were just right here!" I said as I frantically gestured to where they had been.

"They are using private senkaimon to travel back and forth from the Human World."

My face dropped as I understood. "The Kannogi Clan is only seconds away with a good flash step…"

"Yes," he said as his grip on my leg tightened even more.

My shoulders dropped at his words. She… wasn't here. I had been too slow. If I had just made my zanpakuto give me my sword earlier, before they ran, I could have stopped them. I could have done something. My body slumped to the side as my chest tightened and a sob tore from my throat. I couldn't do anything… I couldn't do anything! No matter how I looked at it, I was weak in the Human World. Even if I could get there… There was just no way…

"Ria, it's going to be okay." I knew he was trying to talk me down. When I had slumped to the side, he had followed me to keep his hand gripping my inner thigh. Tears continued to fall down my cheeks as I stared at the spot she had been.

"Captain," Rangiku's voice said softly. "She needs to deal with her grief."

Silk slid across my skin just before the arms of my zanpakuto wrapped around me. I started to pull away from her, but stopped when I felt her emotions like they were my own. I wanted to blame her for making me weak and unable to save Mio, but she was just as grief filled as I was. She… she hadn't known this would happen when she had damaged our bond. My fate had changed, but she couldn't say anything because of the rules. I was safe, but she regretted her actions... Her armor vanished as I buried my face into her chest and cried.

"Herald," my zanpakuto said softly as her fingers ran gently through my hair. "You need to be healed before you bleed out."

I didn't respond to her even though I had heard her. I didn't care. I just… A foreign touch slid across my temple and my world went dark.

I dreamt of Mio… The memories of when I was a child filling my heart with such joy, only for the nightmares of losing her to tear it all away. She wrapped a shawl over my shoulders before I walked out into the winter's snow. She laughed as Daichi was struck down, the grey of her eyes mingling with brown. Her fingers touched my cheek as she helped me put on my make-up before my coming of age celebration. Her touch as she weakly pulled my sleeve, blood turning the pretty pink of her kimono crimson…

I... opened my eyes… I was lying on my side in a futon, staring at a set of familiar shoji doors. There was a fine fuzz that coated the room, in the darkness it looked like white dust, but as I shifted to look at it better I realized it was frost. I started to curl up so I could hide my face from the cold, but there was a weight at my back, an arm under my head instead of a pillow. The scent of the mountains in winter registered in my head, and I realized who was lying behind me. I started to turn, I wanted to see him, but I was stopped by a sharp, burning pain in my thigh. That's right… I had tried to force my zanpakuto…

His arm flexed around my waist, pulling my back against his chest. I hadn't noticed the way he was holding me until he'd moved. I let myself relax, shifting my leg just enough so I wouldn't press against it on accident. I snuggled my shoulders back and turned my head into his arm, settling myself comfortably against him. I barely felt the chill from the frost in the room while I was snuggled against him like this. He was so warm…

Something brushed across my lips, teasing my mind into waking up. My eyes didn't want to open though. I was still so tired… Another touch as something drew across my brow and trailed down my temple. A small groan escaped my lips as I scrunched my eyes and forced them to open. Toshiro was looming above me, his fingers gently trailing down my cheek. My vision was blurry with sleep, but even so I could see the gentle smile that turned his lips.

"What are you doing in my bed?" I asked sleepily. I was happy he was here, but I had to poke a little fun.

"You are actually in mine," he murmured in reply. No wonder I had recognized the shoji doors… Any other time, his words would have made me blush but I was just so darn tired.

"What am I doing in your bed?" I rephrased.

"I wanted to keep an eye on you, since every time I leave you alone you seem to get into trouble," he said. His tone was playful, but the meaning behind his words…

"And that's why you're in it with me?" I asked as I raised my brow at him.

"No," he murmured as he leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine. "I haven't had issues controlling my reiatsu in years, but you…" he pressed his lips to mine in a gentle kiss, the weight of his body pressing into me as he leaned over me. "You make my emotions hard to control, and like last night I couldn't keep my reiatsu from effecting the area around me."

"I'm sorry," I murmured against his lips.

"Don't do this ever again," he said as his hand trailed under the comforter and down my yukata to stop over the bandages around my thigh. His touch was gentle as he gripped my leg, coaxing it to lift and my knee to bend till it was propped up. My thigh didn't hurt like it had when I woke up in the middle of the night. He must have healed it sometime before I woke up.

I started to say something, but closed my mouth on the half-formed words. I chewed on my bottom lip as I tried to think of what I could say. There wasn't any defending my actions. I had acted in desperation when I had tried to force my zanpakuto. It had neither been smart nor the best plan of action. I hadn't had time to think through everything that had happened, but I knew that deep down I regretted it. My zanpakuto had been trying to tell me to stop and I had ignored her.

"You don't have to say anything," he said as his hand shifted, sliding under the fabric of my yukata until his hand was directly touching the bandages, his skin sliding across mine. His touch had my mind suddenly very awake and very aware of just how high up my thigh that I had stabbed myself. "Just promise me you won't do this to yourself ever again."

"I promise," I said breathily. His touch had me wanting to make little noises as he started unwrapping the bandages, his fingers tracing lightly over my skin. My entire body was suddenly hot as I rolled my head back and tried my darnedest to not make a sound. I couldn't stand to look at him as my eyes slid closed and I tried to control my face. He was just removing my bandages. Nothing more… Oh…

"Am I hurting you?" He asked, his forearm under my head shifting so my face was angled towards him.

"No, it doesn't hurt at all," I breathed out as his touch caressed my inner thigh.

He chuckled but continued to unwrap my leg. I didn't think he was trying to tease me, but I couldn't help but squirm under his touch. His touch felt good, but this was so… "My sister would kill you if she found us like this."

"You're probably right," he replied as the bandages slipped free from my skin. "We will get her back, Ria."

"I would like to believe that, but-"

"Then believe it," He cut me off. "I'm taking you with us to the Human World as soon as you are well enough. We will find her and bring her back."

I blinked up at him, surprised by his words. "T-to the Human World?"

"Every time I leave you behind I come back to find you injured," he said as his finger trailed over the line of tender new flesh where my zanpakuto had gone through my leg. His touch brought a shiver that ran through my body and I embarrassedly tried to hide it by shifting to get more comfortable. The look in his eyes told me that he knew exactly what he was doing to me, but his hand left my leg to trail up and rest on the futon beside my shoulder. "I'm not making that mistake again."

"You know that my shikai is pretty pathetic without an abundance of reishi around me. Are you sure it's okay for me to go with you?" I asked.

"You are mine to protect," he said, quoting himself. "If you are with me, no one will harm you."

My eyes softened and I nodded. "I'll try my best to not get in the way."

"You won't be in the way," he said. "Your shikai may actually be of use."

"I don't see how," I replied as my thoughts trailed off to my zanpakuto. I needed to apologize to her…

"Did you know before yesterday that your shikai could find people?"

"No, I had no idea. But, when I think about it, I don't see why I couldn't," I said as my gaze trailed up to the ceiling. "When I am using my shikai, my other sight, I can see a lot more than just reishi. I can feel, hear, and see everything. I just can't think through it all. It's like information overload when my senses spread too far. Like if I was a computer my processor would overheat or crash or whatever term they use."

"And if all that information wasn't there?" He asked. I turned my gaze back to him, pondering his words.

"I suppose I wouldn't have an issue then," I said slowly.

"We want to use you to find where they are hiding."

"Find… where they're hiding?"

He leaned back, reaching to the other side of the futon behind him and picked something up. Shifting back, he set my zanpakuto beside me before his hand rested over my abdomen. "We were searching for Takeshi Nakai and the person controlling him in the Human World. We tracked them to Karakura Town, but haven't been able to find them otherwise."

I stared at my zanpakuto. Her handguard wasn't as shiny as it had been lately, but still the metal caught the light and gleamed. I slowly rolled over and started to reach out to her, but I hesitated. She felt… sad.

Toshiro pressed into my back, the heat of him making me relax as he whispered into my ear, "She is you. Don't be afraid to speak to her."

"I'm not… afraid. I don't know what to say," I admitted.

"Then don't say anything at all," he whispered. He pulled away from my back and I turned to watch him as he got up, pulling the comforter over the spot he had left barren. His gaze was all for me as he headed for the door to his room. "Rest. When you are ready, we will leave for the Human World."

I watched him as he slid open the door and vanished through it. Slowly I turned back to my zanpakuto, my gaze resting on her for a long moment. Letting out a resigned sigh I picked her up and pulled her to my body. Lying back down, I held her to my chest and curled my body around her, nuzzling her hand guard with my cheek. It was like she relaxed in my arms even though she was just a sword and sheath. Without words, we shared our regrets and apologizes. We had both made mistakes… The weariness that Toshiro's touch had chased away seemed to sweep over me and I felt myself drift to sleep with my zanpakuto cradled in my arms.

…

The next time I awoke I was alone with my zanpakuto still clutched to my chest. A fresh shihakusho was folded next to the bed with my kanzashi and hair ribbon laid on top of it, so I made quick work of getting dressed. Toshiro was spoiling me too much. If he kept taking care of me like this, I'd never be able to go back to the way it was before. But, that wasn't such a bad thought… I blushed as the phantom feeling of his hand caressing my thigh came to mind and quickly shook my head in a futile attempt to get the sensory memory to go away. When we saved my sister, she was so going to be able to tell we had done 'something'. She would just ask me a simple question like, 'What happened while I was gone?' and I'd totally blow it…

Emerging from Toshiro's bedroom I glanced around the empty living room that greeted me. His spiritual pressure was still mingling with mine, but despite that I could still feel him and several other people nearby. Wandering through his house I came to the front door which had been left partially open. Poking my head through the opening I spotted a small gathering of people a few feet away from the porch. They were chit chatting amongst themselves, so I made quiet work of passing through the door and walking up to join them.

Toshiro was the first to notice me, turning to face me as I came up to him. He didn't even try put on a professional appearance as his hand found my waist. It surprised me, but I let him guide me to stand at his side. His gaze searched my face for a moment before he said, "Your color is back."

"I am pretty pale skinned normally. I don't know how much color I can actually lose," I said jokingly.

"Apparently, a lot," Rangiku said as she snagged my hand and pulled me away from Toshiro so she could hug me. "You had us worried."

"I'm sorry," I said as I hugged her back. "I wasn't thinking clearly."

"No, you weren't," Rukia said with a humph. "The next time you decide to do something stupid like that say something so I can knock some sense into you before you do it."

I laughed lightly as I turned to her. Her violet gaze was steadily focused on me, intense and irritated. I quickly looked away, not wanting to try and hold her gaze. I looked around at the rest of the small gathering of people and couldn't keep the surprise from my face. Lieutenant Abarai, Lieutenant Madarame, Captain Sui Feng and Squad 11's 3rd seat Ayasegawa were all standing in the group. I quickly gained a proper posture as I pulled out of Rangiku's hug.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted something," I quickly apologized.

"We were waiting on you silly," Rangiku said cheerfully.

"W-Why?"

"Because, we're all going to the Human World. Karakura Town is Squad 13's jurisdiction after all," Rukia said as she patted my shoulder and started walking away. I watched her back as Renji joined her, waving over his shoulder as he caught up to his wife. I turned back to the remaining crowd, the look on my face clearly wondering about the rest of them.

Captain Sui Feng started after Rukia and Renji, saying, "Takeshi Nakai is part of the Stealth Force. It's only right that I go knock some sense into him."

"You just want to go see Yoruichi," Rangiku teased as she followed her.

"I do not! This is purely business," Captain Sui Feng defended.

"And we are bored," Lieutenant Madarame said as he and Ayasegawa followed them.

"Life in the Soul Society is too peaceful lately," Ayasegawa said with a sigh.

"It's damn boring is what it is!" Madarame corrected him. "There's nothing to fight, nothing to kill. It's so lame!"

I smiled as I watched them walk away. "I didn't expect there to be a team of people going," I said quietly to Toshiro who was still standing beside me.

"Some of them have their own motivations," he said as his hand slipped into mine. "But most of them are going for you."

"Whatever their motivations are, it makes me happy. I trust you, but you're only one person. You can't be everywhere at the same time."

"It's not just us that you see here," he said as he pulled me along with him as he followed everyone else. "We have friends in Karakura Town. Friends who understand just how important family is."


	12. She Who is Sheltered

Using a gigai was one of the most uncomfortable things I had ever done. It wasn't so much using one that was awkward. It was the outfits that Humans wore. I was used to having just about everything except my hands, neck and face covered. Humans apparently liked to wear these tiny strips of cloth that they called skirts! My knees weren't meant to be exposed, let alone anything above them. And the shirts… I had certainly figured out where Rangiku got her sense of fashion. I had finally settled on a pair of pants that were so tight I could barely move, and a shirt that was somehow made for drinking tea.

"Do you need any help in there, Miss?" A light, female voice asked from outside the room I had been changing in.

"Ah, I think I'm okay. Thank you though," I replied to the shop attendant. When we had exited the senkaimon we had been just above a little shop that catered to Soul Reapers. That included keeping Gigais on hand. I was extremely thankful to the attendant for ushering me into a private room before I entered my gigai. I had thought that somehow when I entered it, magically I would be clothed. I was very, very wrong…

I looked at myself in the mirror and grimaced at my odd appearance. These pants, jeans as they called them, were so strange looking on my legs. What was the point of even wearing them? Other than covering my skin, they showed everything off with how tight they were. This shirt wasn't too bad aside from the deep scooping neck line that revealed most of my chest. What was it with Human women wanting to expose their feminine assets? I was going to have to go shopping for a different outfit before too long.

Resigning myself to the overly exposing outfit, I grabbed a sleeveless knit sweater that hung down to my mid thighs off the chair and left the room as I threw it on. The female shop attendant was still standing at the door and I almost ran into her. She was a slim woman who was maybe in her thirties with long black hair. Her bangs were cut a little long and split on either side of her nose, accentuating her light purple eyes.

"Oh, sorry," I quickly said.

"It's alright Miss," she replied quickly. "They're waiting for you in the dining room."

"Thank you," I said as I slipped around her. When we had first arrived, we had gone through the dining room, so I knew vaguely where it was. I hugged the knit sweater around my body before I opened the door and gazed into the room. The owner of the shop was lounging on one side of a table while Toshiro, Rukia and Sui Feng were sitting around the table. Quietly I slipped into the room and sat beside Rukia, doing my best to not interrupt their conversation.

"I know that it was tested on Soul Reapers in the past, but a normal Soul Candy wouldn't act like that," The show owner said was a wave of his fan. "If you tried to eat one when you weren't in a gigai, you would just end up spitting it out." The shop owner was a very eccentric looking man. Dressed in a somewhat traditional but humanized green top and shorts, he sat lazily at the table. His hair was blonde and flattened from wearing a hat, but the way his bangs parted over his nose reminded me of the shop attendant.

"What about the Soul Candy that I gave you earlier?"

"This one," The shop owner said as he pulled a blue soul candy from his pocket. "Didn't appear to do anything to the gigai I tried to stick it in. But it is an odd color. What were you expecting to happen?"

"We think that soul candies like this are able to take over souls," Toshiro said as he pulled another one from his own pocket.

The shop owner seemed to think over his words for a moment. "I could never get something like that work correctly. Have you seen it work, or is it just a theory?"

"It is our only theory at the moment," Toshiro responded.

"It's what happened," I added quietly. Everyone's gaze turned to me, making my once invisible presence light up.

"What happened?" the shop owner asked.

I turned my gaze to Toshiro before asking, "Did you find that second Soul Candy in the kitchen?" When he nodded, I continued, "My sister, Mio, likes to decorate pastries and deserts. She was decorating tea cakes with these soul candies when I found her in the kitchen. I didn't even recognize them for what they were until we ate them."

"What happened?" This came from Rukia, but I didn't direct my attention to her.

"I remember feeling like something was trying to take over, but my own power rose in response and I ended up coughing it up. My sister wasn't so fortunate," my gaze drifted down to the table where it stopped.

"Tell me exactly what happened," the shop owner requested.

I glanced over to Toshiro then Rukia and she nodded at me before she said, "This is Kisuke Urahara, former Captain of Squad 12. You can trust him."

I let out a small sigh and turned my gaze back to the table. "She said someone was in her head before she became like the other people."

"The other people?" Kisuke asked.

I did my best to explain everything that had happened so far. I didn't know if I was repeating something that had already been said, but I did my best to tell everything without my opinion tainting it. From the hollow that has first attacked me in the Human World to Amagi's apparent possession, I explained everything from how I understood events to have taken place. When I lifted my gaze from the table during my explanation, everyone except Toshiro seemed to be keen on what I had to say. I had surprised myself with how little I had spoken to anyone else about this whole matter…

"So, based off of what you said, this mysterious former soul reaper has been controlling different individuals and possibly hollows with the use of these soul candies," Kisuke concluded.

"How did you get hollows out of that?" I asked, clearly confused.

"The first instance of things becoming abnormal was when that hollow attacked you, and you said that when your fellow squad member was taken over my one of these things, that he quoted something that the hollow had said."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that the hollow was controlled by a soul candy. It just means that somehow they knew what had been said at the time," I said.

"What about the one that you said created the first instance where your fate changed?"

"I don't know about that one…"

"Or the Adjuchas that conveniently decided to attack the combat team from your squad?"

I didn't have an answer for that one. I hadn't really thought through most of the events that had been happening. I had mostly been reacting to things as they happened.

"If these soul candies are working on both soul reapers and hollows," Rukia started to say. "Then can we assume that he has access to Hueco Mundo?"

"No, he could be catching them as soon as they pass into the Human World." Kisuke answered.

Something nudged my elbow, drawing my attention down and away from the conversation. A black cat was nuzzling its cheek across my skin, scent marking me affectionately. I lifted my arm out of its way and it easily stepped into my legs, settling itself in my lap. I blinked down at it for a long moment before I relaxed and started running my fingers through its smooth fur. It turned its head into my hands, guiding my fingers to scratch behind its ears.

"So, if these soul candies could take over an adjuchas, how didn't it take over Ria?"

I perked up at my name and returned by gaze to the people around us. "Well, at the time I was stuck with my shikai running. Maybe my zanpakuto did something?"

"More likely it was Captain Hitsugaya's spiritual pressure that kept it at bay," Kisuke said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah, you still do feel like him," Rukia said, a devilish grin turning her lips. I quickly averted my eyes, gazing down at the cat in my lap as a blush tinted my cheeks.

"Can we assume then that these Soul Candies can't take over individuals with a certain level of spiritual power?" Captain Sui Feng asked. Her gaze was focused on my lap as a muscle in her eye twitched. I looked down to the cat in my lap and back to her several times as I realized she was staring at the cat.

"Perhaps. Was Takeshi Nakai particularly strong?"

"No," she replied. "He was just another member of the stealth force."

"What about your 4th seat, Captain Hitsugaya?"

"Kyrouni is strong in the aspect that he knows how to use his zanpakuto to his advantage. When it comes to his spiritual pressure, he is certainly several steps below Ria." Toshiro replied.

"What if I tried to eat it again?" I suggested.

"No," Toshiro answered sharply.

"The results would answer several unknowns," Kisuke said as he scratched his chin.

"Out of everyone that came with us, I'm the easiest to subdue," I explained. "Outside of the Soul Society I'm pretty useless even if I'm using my shikai. There's just not enough reishi here for me to use, so I am only as strong as the materials around me."

Toshiro started to tell me no again, but Kisuke interrupted him, "What is your zamapkuto's power, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Tankyu no Unmei's abilities revolve around the manipulation of reishi. I haven't had access to my full shikai for very long, so the only thing that I can really do is fix, make and replicate things made of reishi."

"Does that include organic types of reishi?" He asked.

"I don't think so," I said, shaking my head. "In my mind's eye, I can hear heart beats and voices and stuff, and my zanpakuto is able to find people, but I have never been able to do things like manipulating the reishi that makes up souls or animals."

"Do you mean you haven't been able to, or that you've never tried?"

"I-I have never tried, and I don't want to," I said hesitantly. The cat in my lap rolled over, exposing its tummy. I obliged and scratched its tummy lightly. It sure was an awfully friendly cat to be giving me its belly already…

'But you could,' my zanpakuto murmured in my mind.

'I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that,' I shot back at her.

'They're all made of reishi, Herald. Pretending otherwise will get you in trouble one day.'

'I'd prefer to remain blissfully ignorant when it comes to certain topics,' I said as I sent a mental glare in her direction.

"Yamamoto," Captain Sui Feng's voice pulled me out of my head. "What are you doing to Lady Yoruichi?" She sounded a bit… distressed?

I looked down to the cat in my lap. Yoruichi must have been the cat's name. The cat in question was happily making muffins in the air, its claws flexing and retracting as it purred. "I'm scratching its belly?" I said, raising my voice at the end to make it a question.

"Jealous, Sui Feng?" a very male voice came from my lap. I really shouldn't have been surprised by the talking cat, but it did make me pause for a few seconds before I resumed my scratching.

"N-not at all Lady Yoruichi," Captain Sui Feng quickly denied. Her face gained a slight blush as she averted her eyes to look at the table.

"Well, give us a few days to come up with some way to test these things. From my understanding, several of you already have plans for the next day or two. Go do whatever it was that you had planned and come back here when you're done," Kisuke said as he stood.

The cat abruptly flipped over and jumped onto the table. Walking over to Kisuke its tail flicked seductively from side to side before it sat. It looked behind its body at Captain Sui Feng before it abruptly jumped off the table and ran out of the room. Captain Sui Feng didn't waste long and was following the cat out of the room, calling its name as she went.

"That cat was a person, wasn't it?" I asked slowly as I stared at the door they had went through.

"Yoruichi Shihoin, former leader of the Shihoin Clan." Kisuke said simply before he too left the room.

My hands twitched. I had just been scratching the tummy of a former princess… "What?"

After a fair amount of teasing from Rukia and several wordless but serious stares from Toshiro later, and we were walking down one of the many streets in the city. Renji had joined us as we left the shop. Together he walked with Rukia a short distance ahead of Toshiro and I. At first, we had all been walking together, but Toshiro's pace had gradually slowed and I had stayed at his side as Rukia and Renji drew further ahead of us. He hadn't said a word to me since we left the shop, and I hadn't tried to make conversation. Somewhere tonight I had said something that bothered him in some way. I wasn't exactly sure what I had done, but I had a feeling that it had something to do with those soul candies.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. I had never seen him in Human clothing before. The sight was… well, thrilling to say the least. He was wearing a similar jean material to what I was dressed in, but his weren't skin tight like mine. His were just loose but tight enough to make his butt something that I couldn't stop looking at when he walked in front of me. His shirt was of a similar style to my own, but it had a high collar and was a shade of green that made his eyes seem to pop even more than they normally did. It made him hard to look at without my train of thought completely derailing. Even knowing he was upset about something, I couldn't help but to be attracted to him. Ugh, I was shameless.

Toshiro stopped abruptly and I followed suit, looking up at him questioningly. "Rukia, Renji, we will catch up in a few. Please let Kurosaki know that we won't be late."

"Are you sure?" Renji asked, turning around to walk backwards while still maintaining pace with Rukia.

"Yes, go on ahead." Toshiro replied.

"Alright," Renji responded as he waved and turned back around. He and Rukia spoke quietly between each other before Rukia let out a loud cheer and started dragging Renji away, deviating from their original path. I watched them as they moved away until their shapes vanished around a corner. I glanced around at our surroundings and noticed for the first time that the street was pretty vacant. There was a person here or there hovering outside a store front, but otherwise… It was just Toshiro and I.

Toshiro's hand closed around mine and he pulled me to the side. I turned to him as we entered an ally, falling into the shadows between the buildings. He led me a short distance into the ally until he abruptly stopped and turned to face me. I stopped just before I bumped into him, leaving me so close to him that I had to crane my neck back to meet his gaze. The shirt he was wearing made his eyes appear turquoise as he gazed down at me. The expression he was giving me made it seem like I was a puzzle that he was trying to figure out.

"Just how far are you willing to go to save your sister?" he asked, his eyes narrowing with his words.

"I would do almost anything," I stated.

"Almost?" He asked.

"I hadn't really thought about it in all honesty," I replied as I dropped my gaze. The buttons of his collar were undone, revealing a short line of skin that trailed down his chest by a few inches…

"Then perhaps you need to know how far I am willing to let you go." His voice was low as he spoke, giving me a verbal impression of what he was feeling.

"My willingness to test the soul candy bothers you, doesn't it?"

"Yes," he said flatly. I cringed but otherwise held my tongue as he continued, "I have no intention of letting you get in harm's way while we are here. You are mine in every sense of the word."

"Not every," I said quietly, my eyes flicking up to his. He seemed a little surprised by my words, his brow raised and the beginnings of a grin quirking the corner of his lips. My eyes widened at what I had said, and I quickly covered my mouth with my hand to hide the gasp of surprise. "I-I mean, there's a lot of, um, o-other ways I could- ah," I stopped talking, my hand clamping over my mouth to shut myself up.

"Ria," He cooed my name as he pulled my hand away from my mouth. "I don't mean to tell you what you can and cannot do in this situation, but I do ask that you think things through before you act."

"I just want to help," I said quickly. "I know what you said about helping to find my sister, but outside of that I feel useless. If I can be of assistance, then I want to try."

"I understand that, but do you really want to risk whatever is in that soul candy running around in your body?"

I lifted my gaze to meet his. "I'm the only one it makes sense to try it on."

"You believe that all those soul candies hold the same person inside, right?"

"It's the only way that Amagi could have known everything that happened."

"And you're really okay with that same person being in your head? In control of your body?"

I blinked up at him for a moment, processing what he was really asking. "The same guy who…" I shrank with the realization. I had been okay with the same man who had been trying to kill me being in control of my body. The same man who had tried to assault me after the festival…

"You understand now," he said softly. "If you were taken over by the soul candy, I would be more concerned about him trying to hurt you and what I would have to do to you to stop it."

"I'm sorry," I quickly apologized. "I don't always think things through."

"No, you don't," He stated. "I wish you would take your own safety into consideration before acting on impulse."

"I don't think that far ahead," I admitted. "I've never had to worry about my own safety or what would make me uncomfortable. It was all duty or obligation which I came to an early understanding that I may not like it, but it still had to be don-"

"Thinking like that will get you killed," he said darkly. "If you had a death wish, I could understand your eagerness to put yourself in danger. But you don't. You don't understand danger or what things are truly dangerous versus a smart idea that needs doing. Don't offer yourself up like a lamb to the slaughter, just because you don't know any better."

I nodded slowly. He was trying to tell me that I was being an idiot, without actually saying it. I dropped my gaze as I said, "You're right. I'm sorry."

He pulled me into his body and wrapped me in his arms in a firm hug. I melted into him, my arms wrapping around his waist as I hid my face in his shoulder. Without the extra fabric of a shihakusho or a yukata in the way his hands felt so much closer to my skin. The scent of him was weaker in his gigai, but as I inhaled with my nose pressed to him I could still easily smell the mountains in winter. His fingers gently trailed through my hair, making my scalp tingle with the tender touch. In my gigai I didn't have my kanzashi or hair ribbon, so I hadn't had a choice about leaving my hair down. With the way he always seemed to run his fingers through it when I had it down, I was beginning to think he preferred it when I didn't have it tied up.

"You are such a handful," he murmured.

I couldn't help but to laugh to myself at his words. "Is that how you are always going to describe me?"

"Well," he said leaning back a bit from our hug so he could look down at me. I lifted my head so I could gaze up at him, but quickly realized he was looking further down than my face. "It's an accurate description."

I slid my hand from around his waist and pushed his chin up so he couldn't look down the scoop neck of this stupid Human shirt. He chuckled as his hand caught mine, pulling it out of the way so he could kiss me. I had rose on my tip toes to meet him, kissing him back and wishing I was just a little bit taller. He seemed to feel my strain because his hands slipped under my arms and lifted me off the ground before he pushed my back into the alley wall. My legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as his body pressed into mine, pinning me against the wall. One of his hands slid down my side to slip under my butt, his hand spreading as his arm flexed to support some of my weight while his other hand slipped up into my hair to control my head.

Held against the wall like this I was sitting higher than him by a little bit. I knew a blush was coloring my cheeks, but I couldn't feel it with how hot my body had gotten from the way he was pressed so close to me. This was the first time I had ever been in such a position with someone. The way his mouth dominated mine elicited a moan from my throat. His mouth left mine, trailing burning kisses down my chin to my neck that had me flexing my legs so I could hook my feet together behind him. His teeth nipped at my skin making me throw my head back to expose more of my skin to his teasing touch.

"The Human World is horrible," I groaned as his mouth found my exposed collarbone, his teeth scraping across my skin.

"Why is that?" he asked as his mouth trailed across to my other collarbone.

"You were chastising me just a moment ago, and now you are taking advantage of these silly clothes and I don't want to stop you. I blame the Human World for my loss of sensibility." My voice was breathy as I fought off the urge to make more noises when his mouth a particularly sensitive spot at the bend of my neck.

"I blame you for my loss of control," he almost growled against my skin. "And these silly clothes," he added as he gripped my butt. "And your lack of protest when I do things like this to you," he added again as he leaned his weight heavily into me, grinding my back into the wall. "And the way you smell so faintly of peonies in Spring."

His hand on the back of my head pulled my head down from gazing at the sky so he could capture my lips again. He kept my attention on him as he let me slide down the wall until he was once more looming over me. I barely even noticed when his hand left my butt to unhook my feet from behind him until my toes were resting on the ground.

"If we weren't expected at Kurosaki's, I think I might have kept you here for a while longer," He said against my lips.

"You are lucky I'm not wearing any make-up," I teased.

"You are lucky that we aren't somewhere private," he murmured under his breath.

I let myself sink down until my feet were flat and gazed up at him, a dreamy look on my face. His own heated gaze met mine and filled my stomach with those pesky butterflies. A few weeks ago, I would have never dreamed of intimate relations with a man. Now, it was the only thing I wanted to dream of. The thought of his hands trailing across my naked flesh, his teeth teasing me relentlessly, his fingers digging into my skin… I had to look away as a shiver ran through my body.

"If we don't leave now, we will end up being late," he said smoothly, his voice back to normal. His hand slid into mine and he gently pulled me away from the wall. I laced my fingers through his as I pulled the knit sweater around my body with my other hand. We exited the ally and he guided down the path we had been walking before.

"So, I've heard you say the name Kurosaki twice now," I started to say. "Is that the same Kurosaki that we learned about in the academy?"

He nodded. "Ichigo Kurosaki is one of two Substitute Soul Reapers. His son, Kazui Kurosaki, being the second."

"Kazui Kurosaki? Didn't he blow up half of the Squad 13's training arena about three years ago?" I asked in surprise. It had taken me almost a week to repair the damage that had been done and another week sleeping off the energy drain from using my shikai so heavily. The arena hadn't just been destroyed, it had been pretty much annihilated. Nothing more than a few pebbles had remained so I had had to recreate everything from reishi.

"Yes, that was him," Toshiro replied. "Apparently his Hollowfication process started in the middle of a sparring match between him Ichika Abarai."

"Hollow… fication?" I blinked as I thought over the word. "Like several of the Captains and Lieutenants can do?"

"Some what. Hollowfication is the process to becoming like Captain Hirako or Captain Muguruma."

My awe sent me into silence for a while. When Toshiro had mentioned friends, I hadn't been expecting friends like this… In fact, I didn't know what I had been expecting. Nothing like this, that was for sure. And the two former captains from the shop… Did everyone just run off to the Human World because they could?

"I don't mean to pry, but I don't understand something," I started to say. "If we are interacting with people of such power, why did we bother with a gigai? Can't everyone we have seen thus far, and intend to see shortly, interact with us as Soul Reapers?"

"We are going to be here for several days if not longer," he said, continuing before I could interrupt with a question. "Finding the man who has your sister will take time. You need to learn how to use your shikai the way we need you to be able to, and even if you find him quickly we will need to come up with a plan and execute."

"I suppose that makes sense," I said quietly. "But why the gigais?"

"Not everyone we are going to be interacting with can see us as Soul Reapers," he stated. "Besides, you haven't tasted Human food before, have you?"

"Uh, no," I answered. "I've never spent more than maybe an hour at a time here. I never had a reason to tarry."

"Once, I came here often when I took time off. There were several Humans that I was fond of, so I would come to check on them occasionally," he said as his eyes seem to look into his memories. "It has been years since I came back here outside of work though. The people I would look after have either passed on, or no longer need me to worry after them."

"Humans are typically rather fragile," I commented as I watched his expression.

"Unlike most of us, their life spans are very short."

A comment that Rangiku had made a few days ago surfaced in my mind. 'We both suffered from terrible injuries that resulted in the loss of a significant part of our life span…' was what she had said. Was he thinking about that in this moment? How short or long his life may be? I slipped my hand from his and wrapped my arm around his, putting a little weight on his arm to draw his gaze down to me. "Their lives may be short, but that doesn't mean that their lives are any less filled with passion and wonder."

Whatever tense emotion had filled his eyes melted away into a soft smile. "I suppose you are right." He bent his elbow and rested his other hand over my own as I held onto his forearm. I didn't know what thoughts of his I had eased with my words, but whatever it was, I was glad I had been able to make him relax. He seemed to get lost in his thoughts just as much as I did, only his were regrets and mine were filled with my fears. Such a couple we made that we could ease each other's thoughts so easily…

We walked arm in arm the rest of the way to our destination. Apparently, we had been walking towards a residence of some sort, the building appearing to be two stories and painted an appealing shade of blue. Even in my gigai, where my senses were dimmed, the house radiated spiritual pressure like a flood light. Several people were inside that I didn't recognize, but Rukia, Renji and Rangiku were there. I squeezed Toshiro's arm lightly before I stepped away from him enough to appear like maybe we were just acquaintances. From the conversation back at the shop, I knew I still felt like him, but I didn't feel right coming into a new home appearing possessive or maybe clingy.

Toshiro gave me a side glance before he led us up to the door and started to knock, but his fist missed the wood as the door opened.

"You're lucky you aren't late," a male voice said, the tone clearly irritated.

"I'm well aware of what time it is," Toshiro said in response as he pushed past the man in the door way.

"Yeah, well, the least you could do is say hi or excuse me or something," the guy grumbled. His gaze shifted from Toshiro as he vanished into the house, to me as I remained on the door step. The guy in the door way looked like he was twenty something years old. His hair was orange like a tabby cat and his eyes were a darker variant of the same color. The expression he gave me at first was bored and irritated, but as we gazed at each other recognition lit his face. "Hey, I know you from Squad 13."

I bowed politely, breaking the staring contest we had been having as I said, "It is a pleasure to meet you again Kazui Kurosaki."

"Uh, yeah, It's a pleasure to see you again too," he said awkwardly as I rose from my bow. "What was your name again?"

"Ria Yamamoto," I replied. "3rd seat of Squad 10, formerly a member of Squad 13."

"You're one of Ichika's friends, right?" He asked.

"Not exactly," I replied. "I'm friends with her mother."

"Kazui," a deep male voice called. "Quit harassing the new girl and show her in already."

The… new girl? Humans were so…

"Yeah, yeah," Kazui said with a sigh as he stepped back from the door way. "Come on in."

"Thank you," I said quietly as I stepped over the threshold of the house and turned to follow the path that Toshiro had taken. After the entry way, the house opened into a large living room that was attached to the dining room and kitchen. A staircase was tucked into the corner of the area while several doors lead into other parts of the house. The space was rather large for what I had guessed it would be on the outside. Human architecture was so foreign compared to the way our structures were built in the Soul Society. It was like they wanted to be able to always see each other despite being in different rooms. I personally liked my privacy, so it was a very strange concept to me.

Rukia and Rangiku were sitting at a raised bar like structure that protruded from a half wall along the kitchen while a woman with attractive curves and a happy face worked with some food item on a counter top nearby. Another orange haired man, this one appearing to be in his late thirties, maybe early forties, was sitting on one of the couches in the living, chatting energetically with Renji and another woman with black hair. Several other people that I didn't recognize were sitting at the dining room table, a game of cards going on between them. Toshiro had moved to join Renji and the other two people at the couches, the sound of happy greetings flowing between them. A woman with long sandy brown hair curling down her back emerged from one of the other rooms and also joined the group of people at the couches.

I stood dumbly at the entrance to the large room, unsure of what to do with myself. If this had been a gathering in the Soul Society, I would have made it a point to introduce myself and join in on some pleasant conversation. But this wasn't an event in the Soul Society. I had no idea what I could even talk about with the people here. Could I mention anything about myself? Being a Soul Reaper… did they even know what we were? I could only guess that the older orange haired man was Ichigo Kurosaki, and that the woman in the kitchen was his wife, Kazui's mother. But the rest of them were completely unknown to me.

"Ria," I heard my name called over the sound of people. My gaze flicked over to Rangiku to see her waving me over. A small sense of relief washed over me and I steadily made my way towards the kitchen.

"Rangiku, Lady Rukia," I said politely as I came up to them, bowing my head in respect as I said their names.

"Orihime, this is Ria Yamamoto, the Soul Reaper we were telling you about," Rangiku said as she none to gently nudged me towards the woman at the counter. I politely bowed my head towards her and was greeted with a thousand-watt smile.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you Ria!" She said cheerfully. "I would give you a hug, but I'm sorta covered in whipped cream," She said as he held up her hands, displaying the white froth that coated her fingers.

"No worries," I quickly said.

"We've heard about what happened to your sister," she said as her attention turned back to her work on the counter. "We would be happy to help in any way that we can."

"Thank you," I said, at a loss for something else to say. Rangiku must have been here for a while since not much time had passed between our parting with Rukia and Renji. There was quite a story behind everything that had happened over the last few weeks. I just hoped that they understood what was going on before she offered her assistance. "I don't mean to interrupt your life though, so please don'-"

"Nonsense," she said, interrupting me. "If we can help, we will." Her gaze lifted to mine, a startlingly strong gaze coming from her that I wouldn't have ever expected. Her expression lightened after a moment and she said, "Besides, it has been ages since we've gotten to meet another Soul Reaper. But, it seems like you know Kazui?"

"Not really," I said. "Just heard of him and your husband."

"Oh, I see," Orihime said, flashing me another brilliant smile.

Wow, she was just radiant. Was this how all humans were, or was it just this family?

"Hey Ria," Rukia's voice drew my attention away from Orihime. "What were you and Toshiro doing that took so long? We've been here for ages."

I really did try to keep the blush from coloring my cheeks. I almost managed it, until Rangiku said quietly to Rukia, "I'll bet they needed some alone time."

Rangiku and Rukia together were relentless… I spent the next thirty minutes fending off their crude jokes and suggestive phrasing. They were keeping their voices down, murmuring just loud enough to each other that I could overhear them. Maybe I was just extra sensitive to words they were using, but my blush just got deeper and deeper until I was sure my face was red as a tomato.

Thankfully, Orihime put an end to my suffering by calling us to eat. Plating up from the buffet style dinner she had laid out, I find a nice quiet corner in the living room to eat. I was normally very good at being social, but after all the teasing and comments provided by Rangiku and Rukia I was just plain exhausted. Who knew embarrassment could be so draining.

"Hey there," a friendly female voice said, drawing my attention away from my plate. Taking a seat beside me, the woman with the long black hair smiled at me. She was probably in her forties though she looked to be thirty something. Smile lines dented her cheeks, but otherwise her skin was flawless and glowed with health. She was dressed in a pleated skirt that only went down to her mid-thigh with a shirt that had no sleeves and a neckline that plunged almost as deeply as mine did. She seemed completely comfortable in it though as she kicked her ankle up onto her knee so she could rest her plate on her calf.

"Hello," I said politely. "I don't believe we've been introduced."

"Yeah, you can blame my brother for that. He's been so distracted by Renji that he hasn't bothered making everyone come talk to you. I'm Karin Kurosaki, Ichigo's sister."

"Ria Yamamoto," I said as I inclined my head towards her.

"Ah, so you're the reason that everyone came to visit," she said cheerfully. "I don't know what is going on, but I'm glad for whatever happened. It's been ages since we got to see everyone from the Soul Society."

I smiled at her, not wanting to ruin the small happiness that everyone's presence had brought her. They were all friends, her reaction to the gathering alone proof of their relationships.

"So, I can tell you're a soul reaper just by the feel of you. What do you do as a soul reaper?" She asked curiously as she started eating from her plate.

"I'm the 3rd seat of Squad 10," I said casually. "What do you do as a Human?"

"As a Human?" She asked, an amused smile turning her lips.

"Sorry, I am not well versed in Human affairs. I don't spend much time outside of the Soul Society," I said quickly, apologizing as if I had offended her.

"Its alright," she said with a grin. "I own a sports wear store on the other side of town and coach the soccer team at the local college."

"Sports? Like Sumo?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"No," she said with a laugh. "Western sports, like soccer, baseball or tennis. Things with a ball."

I nodded, pretending to understand what she was talking about as I popped a small sausage in my mouth. Everything that had been served was supposed to be eaten with your fingers, so I was doing my best to only touch my food with two fingers. It was so strange, but thoroughly amusing.

"So, you have the same name as the old Head Captain, are you related to him?" She asked.

"I didn't know that Humans were allowed to know so much about the 13 Court Guard Squads," I marveled absently before I answered her. "I'm his descendant, so I guess, yes I am related."

"Yeah, Kisuke stopped wiping our memories after the whole Aizen incident," she said thoughtfully.

"It's because you are special, like the rest of the Humans here?" I asked. She gave me a funny look so I elaborated, "You all have abnormally high spiritual pressure for normal Humans, which in and of itself isn't odd for this particular place in the world. Being here is like walking into a room full of exposed wiring. It hums with the power."

"You're pretty sensitive to that stuff, huh?" She asked.

"It's a gift of mine, you could say," I said with a smile.

We continued to talk for a long time, our conversation being joined by her sister Yuzu who seemed to be far more clueless about the affairs of the Soul Society, so I tailored our conversation to vague answers when they asked about certain things. Otherwise, the conversation was easy and I found myself relaxing for the first time. But, as the night wore on, most of the Humans who didn't belong in the house left for their own residents. It was well into the night when Karin and Yuzu decided to head home, leaving only orange haired Humans and Soul Reapers inside the house. During my conversations with Karin and Yuzu we had moved to the dining room, leaving me alone in a chair when they had left.

"So, what exactly is going on?" Ichigo asked as he sat on one of the couches in the living room. I remained where I was at the dining room table, clearly listening to the conversation that was about to unfold, but staying out of it.

"We are hunting a former Soul Reaper that is hiding somewhere in Karakura Town," Renji said as he leaned back in his seat.

"Someone I know?" Ichigo asked.

"Most likely not," Toshiro replied. "This man has been hunting down the former head captain's descendants and murdering them for the past 30 years."

"Huh?" Ichigo said with surprise. "You mean like her," he said as he jerked a thumb in my direction.

"Yes," Toshiro replied curtly.

"How the hell did you guys not notice something, oh, say, thirty years ago?"

That was almost exactly what I had said to Uncle Shunsui…

Rukia started explaining everything that I had said earlier at the shop, going into more detail than I originally had. It was clear that she had been talking with the other captains and Lieutenants about my situation, because she seemed to recall events better than I did while adding in details that I hadn't paid attention to until she brought it up. But, at the same time it dredged up all the memories I had stuffed into my mental filing cabinet. I was so lost in her words that when she called out to me, I didn't even hear it.

A hand rested on my shoulder, startling me out of my thoughts. Toshiro was kneeling in front of me, his turquoise tinted gaze steadily watching my face. His hand trailed up my neck to my cheek where his thumb drew below eye, wiping away the tears that I hadn't noticed falling. I dropped my gaze and quickly wiped my other cheek, murmuring apologies under my breath. He caught my hand gently in his before he stood, pulling me up with him. He was standing between me and the rest of the people in the room, his body hiding my smaller form from their view. I used the opportunity to compose myself, closing my eyes and inhaling deeply. I held the breath for a long moment then let it out with a heavy sigh, blinking rapidly to clear the remaining tears from my eyes.

"Thank you," I whispered as I lifted my gaze to meet his. He watched me for a long moment before he turned and headed back to where he had been sitting. I remained standing in place for moment before I followed him, finding the only empty space on the couches beside Kazui.

"So you see, we don't necessarily need your help, but we figured you'd show up and make a mess of things if we didn't invite you," Renji said, continuing on as if I hadn't interrupted them.

"Oh really?" Ichigo said with a grin. "By the sound of it, you guys already made a fine mess of things."

"I made a mess of things," I interrupted them. "Well, my zanpakuto and I. We relied too heavily on the future that Tankyu no Unmei foresaw, and not what was changing around us."

"If we hadn't crippled ourselves the morning that Mio was taken, we would not be here right now," my zanpakuto said as she manifested. She was sitting at my feet, her back resting against my legs as she lounged back. Unlike how she normally appeared, she was almost invisible with her form only appearing when I wasn't looking directly at her. My eyes just couldn't adjust to see her, like looking at the stars after leaving a brightened area. She tilted her head back to look up at me and her mask gleamed like diamonds refracting the light. The only color in her almost transparent appearance was the teal of her eyes, the way they appeared as she turned her head startling and almost alien.

'It is this place that makes me appear like this. I cannot gather the reishi required to fully manifest without exerting myself, so I am not bothering to,' she said in my head, answering my questions before I could put them into thought.

'I didn't think I could talk to you while I was in a gigai,' I thought to her.

'A gigai is just a shell. Why wouldn't you be able to talk to me?'

Well, she had a good point there.

"What is that?" Kazui asked from my side as he inched away from us.

"My zanpakuto," I said calmly. "She's a bit showy, I know." I gazed around at the people in the room and noticed everyone except Rangiku and Toshiro either gaping or staring at Tankyu no Unmei. I hadn't realized that out of everyone in the room, only they had seen her before. It didn't help that she was particularly alien looking at the moment…

Mostly unfazed, Ichigo piped up, "I guess we can help. Not like we have anything better to do anyway." He scratched the back of his head as he looked down to Orihime who had turned her gaze away from my zanpakuto to smile up at him.

"Thank you," I said whether or not it was my place to be thanking them.

"Don't thank us until we get your sister back," he said, sounding irritated.

I hid a smile with a respectful bow of my head as I said, "Of course."

"Well, it's getting late," Rukia said as she jumped up from the couch. "I guess we should be heading back to Urahara's shop."

"Don't tell me Renji's moocher status has rubbed off on you," Ichigo said with a groan.

"Hey!" Renji protested as he too came to his feet.

"Don't lump me in with him. I'm a paying customer unlike moocher here," She said as she hiked her thumb in her husband's direction.

"Is that any way to talk about your-"

"Moocher," Rukia interrupted him.

"Moocher," Rangiku said with a nod of agreeance.

"Moocher," repeated Ichigo.

Imaginary arrows seemed to pierce Renji as he twitched with every repeated accusation. Laughter filled the room, ushering the couple out the door with good humor as their company. I stayed back as most of the other people in the room followed them to the door to see them off. My zanpakuto had vanished when I stood, but Orihime remained, standing beside me as we watched them go.

"Just so you know," she started to say quietly. "Toshiro spoke with us briefly about your situation yesterday when he was here with Captain Sui Feng. We weren't expecting events to turn as they have, but our home is open to you whenever you need it."

I turned to her and gave her a relaxed smile. "Thank you, Orihime. Under any other circumstance, I would have felt uncomfortable in this situation, but you all have made me feel welcome despite the danger that I could be bringing into your lives."

"You are a friend of our friends. We've done more for people who mean less to us. It's just who we are," She said as she patted my arm affectionately.

"I appreciate it none the less."

"Come on," she said as she turned and headed for the stairs leading up. "I could use some help getting the guest rooms set up."

I followed her up to the second floor and helped her pull out and set up three futons, two in one room for Rangiku and I, and one in the other for Toshiro. Orihime had been kind enough to lend me a pair of her pajamas to wear that night, as well as a set for Rangiku which we left at the foot of her futon so she could change when she came up for the night. I had changed as soon as we were done setting the rooms up, taking comfort in the several sizes too large long sleeve flannel shirt and extra baggy pants. Orihime was gorgeous and curved in all the right places, but she was much taller than I was. The pajamas were probably baggy on her, making me swim in them with my much leaner frame.

Rangiku had come into the room just as I was finishing fastening the last button of my shirt. She yawned, stretching her arms out dramatically as she walked over to her futon. "I swear, teasing you all night is hard work. I'm exhausted."

"I'll just bet," I grumbled as I started folding my outfit from the previous day.

"Huh," she started to say as she leaned over me, watching what I was doing.

"What?" I asked as I finished making my clothes into a nice square.

"We need to go shopping tomorrow," she said simply before she started to strip.

"I didn't come here to go shopping," I replied.

"No, but you need more than one change of clothes. I'll just bet that's the outfit that Ururu picked out for you, isn't it?"

"Who?"

"Ururu, the attendant at Urahara's shop."

"Oh," I said dumbly. "Yes, this is what she provided me with."

"It's so boring," She said, the last word stretched with another yawn.

"If you ask me it was too exposing," I griped as I pulled back the comforter of my futon and slid in.

"You think everything is to exposing," Rangiku said, rolling her eyes. "You should see what sort of things they wear for swimming. It's fantastic."

"I don't swim," I replied bluntly as I laid down, giving her my back so I didn't have to watch her change.

"Aw, you are missing out. Maybe once all this is over we will have to take you to the beach," she said cheerily.

"I'll pass," I said as I covered myself up, hiding everything but the top of my head.

"You're no fun," she said pouting. She didn't say anything after that though, the light in the room turning off after a few minutes to bathe us in darkness.

I found sleep easily after only a few moments, the darkness of my dreams taking over quickly. I was standing with my zanpakuto in a field filled with fragrant flowers. The sun was shining on us, but as I thought about it, clouds like popcorn cast shadows over us in small bursts of darkness. My zanpakuto was translucent like she had been before, her mask and now armor gleaming like diamonds across her body.

"Herald," she said softly, her voice ghosting through the air.

"Tankyu no Unmei," I replied, my own voice vanishing into the openness.

"At this moment in time," she began, our sword appearing in her hand. "The only thing I can see in your near future is death."

"Who's death?" I asked.

"Yours. Your sister's. Someone close to you. Your enemy. I cannot tell," she said, twirling the blade around her in elegant arcs.

"When do you think that you will be able to tell?"

"Soon. If he continues to play with your fate's strings, never. I do not know."

"What would you have of me?" I asked slowly.

"I do not care for your sister, but I know she means a great deal to you," She started saying, our sword spinning faster about her.

"You would have me abandon her," I stated flatly.

"If it would not haunt you, yes." She replied, our sword abruptly stopping, the blade pointed towards me.

"Then what would you have me do?"

"Survive. At all costs, survive."

She thrust forward, the blade of our zanpakuto puncturing through me with the swift strike. Like a delayed reaction, I didn't feel the pain at first because I was too shocked by what she had done. Then it roared through me, stealing my breath and thoughts away just as swiftly as she had pierced me. The strength of her hold on our sword was the only thing keeping me on my feet as it bit into me, digging into bone. Her sad teal gaze watched me as I coughed, blood sliding down my chin. All I could do was blink at her dumbly, wondering why…

I bolted upright in my futon, my heart pounding and the imaginary pain from being skewered still holding my breath hostage. I grasped my chest, digging my nails into my skin as I struggled with myself. It wasn't real, she hadn't actually done that. It was a dream… In one gasping breath, I began to breathe again, the air passing through me in heaving pants. I remembered where I was and instantly forced my breathing to quiet. Glancing over at Rangiku I was relieved to see her still sleeping soundly in her futon. I didn't need everyone knowing that I was plagued by nightmares of my own zanpakuto.

'Are you alright Herald?' she asked me in my head.

'What the hell was that?' I demanded.

'A dream.' She answered smoothly. 'Have we ever spoken like that before?'

'No, but it was you.' I replied as I slid out from my futon and headed for the door. I needed air, and to not have to worry about waking my lieutenant.

'Yes and no, my words may have been mine, but not the actions,' She cryptically denied.

'Can't I just get a straight answer out of you?' I thought angrily as I slipped out of the room and into the hallway.

'You put the visual there. The words were ours, but not what you saw and felt.'

I shook my head as I felt my way down the hall in utter darkness, searching for the stairs. I stopped by what felt like a door under my hands as I remembered the other guest room had been just beside the one Rangiku and I had been in. As I thought about him, I could feel Toshiro's spiritual pressure on the other side, steady and cool. I thought about knocking softly to see if he was still awake, but decided against it. I was always keeping him up for one reason or another. No sense in waking him up now just because my dreams were all sorts of wacked out.

"Ria," I heard his voice say softly from inside the room just as I was turning to keep going. I hesitated, wondering if I was imagining things before I decided to crack the door open and see if I was crazy or not. Peeking in I saw him sitting up on his futon, his aquamarine eyes appearing to glow ever so slightly from the moon light that streamed in from the window.

"I didn't mean to wake you," I replied in a hushed tone as I slipped in through the doorway.

"I wasn't asleep," he said as he turned towards me. I noticed then that he wasn't wearing a shirt, the light from the moon playing across his features. It made me hesitate in my steps slightly, but I shook off the rush of nerves and continued into the room until I knelt at the side of his futon.

"I think you've ruined me for ever sleeping alone again," I said with a small smile.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"When you are near, I don't dream about bad things."

"Nightmares?" He asked softly, reaching out to take my hand. I nodded shyly and started to say something, but he interrupted me when he pulled my hand forward. Surprised, I fell into him as his arms wrapped around me and pulled me down. I ended up sprawled on top of him as he laid back, his eyes dancing with amusement. Slowly I oriented myself, straddling his waist as I looked down at his smug expression.

"What ar-"

"Stay with me tonight," he interrupted me.

I blinked down at him. "Here? When we are guests in someone else's house?"

"Just to keep your nightmares at bay," he teased as his hands wrapped around my knees and slowly slid up my thighs in unison. His touch made woke those pesky butterflies in my stomach and my heart jumpstarted in my chest. I shuddered as his fingers trailed over my hips, his thumbs pressing into the sensitive flesh at the dip just inside my hip bones. My hands covered his, keeping his touch from progressing any further up. It wasn't that I wanted him to stop, but that the sensory overload had my body quivering with excitement.

"You're going to drive me crazy if you keep doing that," I breathed out.

"Maybe that is what I am trying to do," He said huskily as his fingers dug into my skin a little more. I closed my eyes, relishing in the feeling. He chuckled softly before his hands relaxed, slipping out from under my own. I let out a sigh and felt my entire body relax. His hand gripped mine, tugging lightly to guide me to lay beside him. I obliged and let him pull me down to his side as he rolled over. His arm rested under my neck, only the top of my head resting on his pillow as he pulled me closer to him.

His arm wrapped around my body while his other flexed under my neck. He pulled me closer into his body until the lines of our bodies were touching. I nuzzled my nose into his bare chest as our legs entwined. Sheltered in his arms the world felt so right. I belonged here… With him…


	13. She Who Searches

Fingers ghosted over my ribs, teasing a drowsy sigh from my lips. My hand trailed down warm skin as I rolled over, the fabric of my shirt resisting as it was pinned between my body and the futon. The fingers that were on my ribs slid along my skin as I moved, trailing over my side to my spine where they trailed up, raising my shirt as his hand pressed between my shoulder blades. Lips covered mine in a gentle but teasing brush and I wrapped my arm around his neck, pressing the front of my body firmly against his. He let out a quiet groan as he leaned over me, his body pressing me into the futon with his weight. His teeth teased my bottom lip, nipping and scrapping across my sensitive flesh.

"Toshiro," I breathed out against his lips just before his mouth conquered mine. His leg pressed between mine, eliciting a muffled moan from my throat.

A soft knocking at the door froze us both in place.

"Hey Captain, is Ria in there with you?" Rangiku's voice said from the door.

I opened my eyes to gaze into Toshiro's own aquamarine orbs. His hand trailed down my spine, the touch sending shivers through my body that had my eyes fluttering and my head rolling back. He kissed the exposed skin on my neck as his leg pressed higher between mine.

"Captain," Rangiku's voice whined. "I know you're in there."

A low growl emanated from Toshiro as he pulled his mouth away from my skin. I pulled my head back to a normal position to gaze up at him. He pushed my mused hair away from my face and kissed me lightly as he whispered, "she won't go away."

"I know," I replied reluctantly.

He kissed my nose before he shifted, pulling the comforter that we had somehow kicked to the foot of the bed back up to cover us. He rolled back to his side so he wasn't pressing me down into the futon before he called out to Rangiku, "Yes, she's in here."

"Really? I can't feel her over your spiritual pressure," she said. I knew she was just trying to get me to say something, so instead I shuffled down to hide everything but my head under the comforter just in case she decided to open the door.

"Yes, really," he replied in his usual annoyed tone as he kissed the top of my head.

"Alright," she replied, giving up for the moment. "Orihime is making breakfast. You two should come down before it gets cold."

We listening to her footsteps as she walked down the hallway and to the stairs. When I thought she was far enough away to actually be leaving us alone I let out a sigh and tilted my head back to gaze up at Toshiro. He cupped the side of my face in his hand, his thumb stroking across my cheek as he gazed down at me with tenderness in his eyes.

"Good morning," I said softly, turning my head so his thumb would brush over my lips.

"Good morning," he murmured back. His leg still between my own shifted higher, drawing a small involuntary gasp from me. His mouth replaced his thumb, finding my lips as he pulled me tighter against him. 

"If you two continue like this, you both will get nothing done today," my zanpakuto's voice piped up.

I jumped at the sound of her voice, Toshiro's weight the only thing keeping me from scrambling out of the bed. After a second I realized it was just my zanpakuto and I dropped my head, hiding my embarrassed blush against his chest.

"Seriously?" I asked her.

"Yes, seriously. She who Desires isn't your name today," she said smartly.

"What is her name today?" Toshiro asked.

"She who Searches."

Slowly I drew myself from Toshiro's arms and sat up. My zanpakuto was crouching at the foot of the futon, watching us with amused teal eyes. They were the only solid feature about her, the rest of her form translucent like the day before. She tilted her head to the side as she watched me, her mask twinkling like diamonds.

"Thank you for the reminder," I said softly.

"Today is the day you try to learn to use this aspect of my power," she murmured.

"Try?"

"You may succeed, you may not. That is up to you." She replied simply. "The longer you take to master it, the more death that I foresee in your future."

I recalled the dream I had last night and frowned.

"I understand," I said as my hand touched the spot on my chest that she had pierced in my dream. She vanished like she was so fond of doing, leaving us alone in the room. Slowly I turned to Toshiro to watch him as he sat up beside me. My eyes trailed to his abdomen as he flexed with his movement and I couldn't help but to stare.

"You are not allowed to go shirtless anymore," I grumbled, unable to take my eyes off of him.

"Neither are you," he said gazing down at me. I followed his gaze and blushed but didn't hide myself from him. Only one button hadn't come undone on the pajama top, allowing the fabric to part just below my breasts. He chuckled and rolled out of the futon and too his feet. "As soon as you are ready, we will start working with your shikai."

It was only a little while later and I was dressed and down stairs. Normally when I slept I didn't move much, but last night had turned my hair into a rat's nest. Or maybe it had all been this morning… either way, getting my hair back to normal took far longer than any other part of my usual morning ritual. My only saving grace, and I couldn't believe that I was thinking about her this way, was Rangiku who had come up to check on me. Unlike my totally unprepared self, she had brought all of her beauty supplies and had me looking better than I did yesterday in minutes. Unfortunately, that meant she had attacked my face with her dreaded make-up so all the time she had saved me by fixing my hair was lost to beauty products. Sigh…

The breakfast that Orihime had served was made of these funny little bread circles called pancakes that you covered in liquid sugar. It was certainly a strange meal, but I didn't complain. She was being nice enough to feed all of us, so I complimented her cooking and ate in mostly silence. It did taste good though… Odd, but good.

"How do you intended to find this guy you're looking for?" Ichigo asked as he stuffed a piece of pancake in his mouth.

I glanced up at him to see he was looking right at me and not someone else. Only he, myself and Kazui were actually sitting at the table. I could feel Toshiro and Rangiku outside somewhere while Orihime was in the kitchen doing dishes. Hesitantly I answered, "My zanpakuto can find people."

"Is that your zanpakuto's ability? Finding people?"

"No, not really. I can manipulate reishi. You know, making and fixing things with reishi," I replied as I set my fork down. "I'm still learning how to use my shikai. Tankyu no Unmei is able to do far more than I am."

He gave me a funny look, his brow lifting and his dark orange eyes narrowing. "You're just a novice and they sent you down here?"

"Not exactly. I am the same rank as Yumichika Ayasegawa, the 3rd seat of Squad 10."

"So, you're not a novice but you're still learning to use your shikai?"

I laughed silently to myself and shook my head. "It's a long story, but I've only been able to use a portion of my shikai until recently. Captain Hitsugaya has been helping me to learn control."

"I've never been very good with this spiritual pressure crap," he said as he turned his gaze back down to his plate. "But, you feel like the old man and Toshiro."

"I am descendant from Former Head Captain Yamamoto," I said softly. "As for Captain Hitsugaya, I had some issues controlling my reiatsu. He helped to stabilize my spiritual pressure by giving me some of his own, so I suppose I still feel like him."

"They're lovers," my zanpakuto piped up.

I dropped my fork…

She was the worst zanpakuto in the history of zanpakuto…

Ever.

"Lovers implies that we are doing things that we aren't doing!" I shouted as I turned on her. She was sitting in the chair beside me, translucent like before except for her eyes that were laughing at me

"But you want to."

"That's beside the point!" I bellowed. "You don't just go around saying things like that. You're supposed to be on my side, not telling all my secrets because you want to torment me!"

"He needs to know why his friend has such a vested interest in this matter," she stated simply.

"It still not your place to say things like that," I chastised her. "Toshiro would have been here for me even if we weren't, ah, together. It's just the kind of man that he is."

Subtle laughter coming from Ichigo's direction drew me out of my argument with Tankyu no Unmei. I blinked at him, unsure of what to say because I had no idea why he was laughing. He set his own fork and knife down on the edge of his plate and pushed his chair back, still laughing to himself. His head tilted back until it was resting on the back of the chair, his laughter quieting as he gazed up at the ceiling.

"M-Mr. Kurosaki?" I asked hesitantly.

"It's about time someone pulled him out of his own head," he said lightly.

"Excuse me?"

"Toshiro," he said, drawing his gaze down from the ceiling to look at the table. "When I first met him, he was a stuffy little boy who couldn't think about anything other than his duties. I don't care what he says, he really was young. Smart, brilliant even, but a child still in many aspects." He shifted forward, his elbows resting on the table as he laced his fingers together and rested his chin on the back of them.

"Kazui, give us a minute will you?" Ichigo asked his son.

"Yeah, sure." Kazui said as he stood, taking his plate into the kitchen before I heard his feet moving up the stairs.

As soon as I heard Kazui open and close a door upstairs, Ichigo began to speak, "Toshiro has been my friend for over thirty years now. Back before peace ensued over the Soul Society we fought at each other's backs numerous times from here in the Human World all the way up to the Soul King's Palace. Through Aizen's assault, Kusaka's return, Muramasa's coup, and several other events he always had my back, well, after persuading him that I was in the right." He chuckled to himself as the memories showed in his eyes. "Out of all my friends in the Soul Society, I think he and Rangiku were the only ones who didn't find some sort of happiness."

I started to open my mouth to say something, but my zanpakuto's hand rested over my arm drawing me into silence. I glanced over to her, meeting her teal gaze just before she vanished.

"Rukia and Renji finally quit being so stubborn and found each other. Ikkaku and Yumichika are so wrapped up in squad affairs that I can't imagine them being any happier unless another war broke out. Even the people here in the Human World like Kisuke, Yoruichi, the remaining Visored and Fullbringer all seem to be doing better. Everyone else seems to have gone on as normal," he continued as his eyes wandered over to me. "It was about fifteen years ago when Toshiro seemed to shut down. At least, that's when I noticed a change. He didn't visit as often until he just stopped coming. It must have been almost ten years since we last saw him. I guess Momo-"

"Mr. Kurosaki-"

"Ichigo," he corrected me.

"Ichigo," I repeated after him before continuing. "I understand that something upset him in his past, but I would much prefer that he tell me about something if it matters to him like that."

"Understandable," he said nodded at me. "Either way, when he showed up a few days ago, it was like the old him was back. Can I blame you for that change?"

"I-I guess," I said hesitantly.

"Well, thank you," He said softly. "Toshiro deserves to be happy."

"You don't have to thank me," I said shyly. "He does far more for me than I do for him."

"I'd have to disagree," Orihime said as she poked her head in from the kitchen.

"O-Orihime," I said her name as she startled me.

"You two are cute together. And the way he wiped your tears away yesterday was just adorable!" She swooned.

"I am just going to go and, uh, find something to do," I said as a blush took over my face and I stood. I had forgotten she was there. I really didn't like talking about my personal affairs. Listening to Ichigo talk about Toshiro had been one thing, but we were starting to wander over to relationship territory. I had a hard enough time talking to Toshiro about us, but to them? To people who were little more than very nice strangers to me? Nope. Not happening.

"Ria," Orihime called after me as I headed for the front door.

"I'll be back later. People to find, powers to figure out," I said as I waved over my shoulder and darted outside.

Standing just on the other side of the fence gate, Rangiku and Toshiro were talking quietly. Upon my approach they turned toward me, Rangiku smiling and Toshiro sporting his serious but annoyed expression. It took me a second to realize that Toshiro wasn't in his gigai, but instead standing as himself beside Rangiku. She was still in her gigai, the Human outfit she had chosen to wear today accentuating her already curvy figure.

"Hey Ria," Rangiku said in a sing song voice. "I'm taking your gigai shopping. Get out of it."

I blinked at her, my blush fading with my confusion. "What? Shopping?"

"Yes, yes. Now, get out." She ordered. "You can't possibly go around in one single outfit for forever."

"If I leave you in charge of dressing me, I'm going to end up in something embarrassing," I grumbled as I stuck my hand in my pocket to fish out my soul candy.

"I'll make sure its tasteful," Rangiku said with a sigh. "Now hurry up."

Frowning I pulled the candy from my pocket, checking to make sure it was green before I popped it in my mouth. Like being forced backward by a strong gust of wind I stumbled back from my gigai, almost falling on my butt with the force of it. I shook my head, trying to chase away the tingling feeling that ran along my skin from the separation. It had been a stranger sensation than entering the gigai had been and I totally hadn't been ready for it.

My gigai turned to me, a sly grin turning its lips as it gazed at me. It was so weird seeing myself with that expression.

"Stay with Rangiku," I ordered it. She, me, nodded and turned to look at the lieutenant. Rangiku wasted no time, snatching my gigai's wrist and dragging her away while blabbering on about all the stores they were going to hit.

I watched them go until they were out of ear shot and shook my head. That was just a disaster in the making… I reached down and grasped the hilt of my zanpakuto, happy to actually have her at my side again. It had been weird to not have the weight of her at my hip. I reached up to my kanzashi, feeling it still securely pressed into my chignon. I quickly checked the rest of body, making sure that my shihakusho was still the same, my hair all still collected in the chignon, my sandals still present. Everything was as it should be…

"You okay?" Toshiro asked as he stopped just in front of me.

"Yeah, that was just weird," I said as I looked up to him.

"You'll get used to it," he said with a shrug. "Are you ready to get started?"

"Ready as ever," I replied.

"Follow me," He said just before he took off in a flash step. I followed him as he jumped over the buildings and flash stepped across the air. I followed him, pushing to keep up with his speed as he led us out of town and into a forested area. We jumped across the canopy until we came across a clearing where he stepped down to the grass and stopped. I stopped just beside him, stumbling a little bit with the slickness of the grass. His arm found my waist to support me, which I didn't need but didn't object to either.

"Thanks," I murmured.

"I don't know how sensitive your other sense is, the one you always refer to when you talk about your shikai," he said as he pulled his arm away. "I thought that coming out here where there are less people would be ideal."

"You are probably right," I said, looking up at him. I took in a deep breath and drew my zanpakuto from her sheath.

"Why do you seem nervous?" He asked as his hand found my free one.

"I don't want to fail," I said quietly as I cast my gaze down to my zanpakuto's blade. "Last night, in my dreams, she told me that she saw someone's death. Mine, Mio's, someone close to me, my enemy. She didn't know who. I would like to imagine that if I can find Mio quickly that it won't be someone that I care about, but I just don't know."

"Then don't fail," he said simply. "Don't doubt yourself and just make it happen." I lifted my gaze, meeting his own steady one. He was so sure of himself, of me. I squeezed his hand in silent thanks and stepped away from him, giving him my back as I raised my zanpakuto so I could see my reflection.

"Tankyu no Unmei, Maebure no Shukufuku," I murmured. My reflection shifted ever so slightly, parts of it becoming her instead of me before power rushed over me. My armor began forming from my arm guard up, the sleeve of my shihakusho dissolving as it continued forming up my arm to my shoulder pauldron. As the rest of my armor formed over my body there was a funny straining feeling in the back of my head. I pushed power into my armor until I felt the last bit of my breast plate had formed to finish off my shikai's armor. Looking down at myself I turned one way, then the next to make sure it had entirely formed. It was all there, but that had been odd.

'The reishi your armor is made from normally comes from outside of your body. Here, where reishi is limited, it comes solely from your reiatsu,' my zanpakuto whispered through my mind.

'That would have been nice to know ahead of time,' I grumbled at her.

'You should have known as much,' she sighed back at me. 'I swear you are so slow.'

'Well you aren't very helpful,' I shot back. 'Now, explain to me how this works.'

'Figure it out, Herald.'

I let out a sigh. 'Once upon a time you said I had to learn how to use this armor, The Herald's Blessing. Is this what you were referring to?'

'Yes. My powers are your powers, if you earn the right to use them.'

'Then why don't you use our powers and search for her? You already know how to do it. You found that man in the Soul Society without my help.'

'And I damaged our bond by doing so, which I am not willing to do again with you already in danger. Your mind is not ready to search the way that I can. You need to find other ways of doing so without hurting yourself.'

She really wasn't being very helpful. Fine then.

I closed my eyes and let my senses spread out. Unlike when I was in the Soul Society, there was no information flooding my thoughts. There was me, Toshiro standing behind me, and tiny fragments of reishi that were floating through the air or resting on the grass. Outside of the things made of reishi, I couldn't see anything with my mind's eye. The only thing I had to orient myself was my sense of up and down. It was so strange... I opened my eyes even though I was still only seeing through my mind's eye and frowned. "I knew that the Human world isn't made of reishi like the Soul Society, but I didn't realize just how little reishi there actually was here."

"There is a higher concentration inside the city, but it isn't much stronger," Toshiro replied.

"The only things I can actually see in my mind's eye are you and me."

"Can you only sense reishi when you are using your shikai? Or can you still feel spiritual pressures?" He asked.

"I can feel or see both, it just depends on what I am paying attention to," I replied as I turned to face him. "Like now, I am seeing through my mind's eye, but if I dull that sense I can feel spiritual pressures."

He looked like he was about to say something but stopped abruptly as he gazed me. "Your eyes are your zanpakuto's," he said as he took a step towards me. I pushed my mind's eye to the back of my head so I could see from my actual eyes and lifted my zanpakuto's blade up so I could see my reflection again. Teal eyes like Tankyu no Unmei's had replaced my normal brown eyes in my reflection.

"You said I had her eyes after she damaged our bond," I recalled as I lowered my sword arm back to my side. "Maybe when she repaired our bond I gained a little more of her in my shikai. I mean, this is her armor. Or, most of it." I said as I gestured to the breast plate. Her armor had more to it, like the second shoulder pauldron and metal plates over her hips instead of her thighs like mine.

"Maybe," he said as his hand lifted and brushed across my cheek. "They just aren't your eyes."

I pulled back my senses that I had spread, closing my eyes as my mind's eye narrowed then shrank to a very small radius around my body. The sensation was akin to squeezing a stress ball as hard as I could until my fist closed and sealed around it. I slowly opened my eyes once the pressure to spread my senses out had eased and blinked up at him.

"There you are," he murmured. He lifted my chin as he bent down and kissed me. With him so close to me, touching me like he never had before while my shikai was running, the sensation of him was so intense. I couldn't just feel his lips on mine, I could feel the way his haori brushed against my armor, the way his heart beat in his chest, his spiritual pressure as it mingled with the part of him that was still infused with mine. I had to step back from him to stop the sensations before I was consumed by him.

I heard him call my name, but I was so busy pushing the information into categories that I couldn't respond. It had been so different from just manipulating reishi that I didn't have a place to put most of it. Feelings, sounds, taste, scents… They were all things I had been too busy in the Soul Society to pay attention to, but now that it was the only thing I could think about it was all coming to the forefront of my mind.

"Sorry," I murmured once my mind had sorted enough information for me to talk. "Too much."

"Too much what?" he prompted me.

"To much… you," I said hesitantly. "Like looking into a tree before I learned her name. Too many fibers to track, too much bark, roots, leaves… There was just so much more when it was you."

"What were you sensing?"

I couldn't help but to blush as I said, "The feelings were much more intense. I could hear your heart beat, feel your haori as it brushed my armor, your spiritual pressure as it touched mine."

"You felt reiatsu with your shikai?" he asked.

I had to think about what I had said before I slowly nodded. "Yes, I did."

"Can you feel me now?" He asked as he backed away a few feet.

"I can always feel you when you are nearby," I said with a small grin.

He returned my grin with a knowing smirk. "I meant with your shikai."

I closed my eyes and pushed my senses outward. I found him without any issues, my mind's eye attracted to him because he was the only source of reishi besides myself. I sorted everything about him into categories until I was left with only his presence, his reiatsu, but keeping it at the forefront of my mind was like trying to grasp water. It just kept slipping away from me.

'Use your armor,' my zanpakuto's whispered.

'My armor?'

'Maebure no Shukufu, my Herald's Blessing. Use it.'

'How?'

'Do I have to explain everything? Use your brain for once you ninny.'

I let out a sigh and hung my head. What did it really say about me if my zanpakuto, the other half of my soul, thought I was an idiot?

"Ria?" Toshiro's voice brought me out of my head.

"She says I need to use my armor," I said aloud. "But I don't know what she means by that."

"What was your armor before you formed it?" He asked me.

"My own special brand of reishi," I answered, not following his train of thought.

"Before your armor, you had trouble controlling it," he continued.

"Yes," I said slowly. "It was too much. I couldn't control it because it kept overwhelming me."

"Would it overwhelm you now, or give you the extra power that you need?"

"I-I don't know," I stumbled over my words.

"Why don't you try?" He suggested smoothly.

"You're the only source of reishi right now, beside myself," I said quickly, sounding almost panicked. My zanpakuto's wonderful little blip from yesterday about my being able to manipulate organic reishi had me paranoid about what I could do. "If I lose control-"

"You would have to overpower my own reiatsu before you could do anything to me, Ria."

I opened my eyes and gazed up at him. With my heightened sight, it was like I was only looking at him from a foot or two away instead of several yards. His gaze was steadily watching me, his posture radiating confidence with his body squared towards me. He was right. I couldn't hurt him with my shikai. His spiritual pressure was like a whale to my guppy. But still… "I don't want to hurt you on accident."

"You won't," he assured me. "I promise."

I held his gaze for a long moment, biting my lip as I worked through my own thoughts. I trusted him. If he said that I wouldn't be able to do anything to him, then I had to believe it. This was all for Mio…

Grasping my breast plate in my free hand, I pulled at the edge. At first it didn't budge, but as I pushed power into the metal it softened under my hand. Slowly I pulled a handful of the metal away in my hand, the chunk I had grabbed parting with the rest of the metal as easily as breaking bread. I opened my palm and watched as the metal began flaking away in golden bits of reishi. Once my hand was empty and the bits of reishi were floating around me I started pulling more of my armor away. With each handful of reishi that I added to the air, my mind's eye expanded and became stronger, more detailed.

After only a few minutes everything but my hand guard had been stripped off my body. Gold and silver bits of reishi were wafting around me like snow that had been suspended mid air. I watched the bits as they shifted with my movements. Here, where there was no reishi to fill my mind, my senses had turned to the sounds and movements around me. The bits were only spread around me in a small radius, but within that radius I could see and hear everything with my mind's eye even if I was still blind toward anything that wasn't made of reishi. It was so strong that I had to close my eyes to keep from getting disoriented.

I distantly felt Toshiro take a step towards me. His movement caught my attention and like a swarm of bees the reishi that was once my armor started to move towards him. I caught myself, pulling back and regathering the flecks with my mind's eye. I was drawn towards him, my senses threatening to expand around him.

"Focus," I heard him whisper. "Feel my spiritual pressure."

Right. Spiritual pressure…

I turned my mind back to the categories I had made earlier. His spiritual pressure was still there in my head, unsorted and wafting ominously before me. I reached for it, my mind's eye grasping at it. It slipped through my fingers, just like it had before. I frowned and tried again, only for it to slip by once more.

"You don't need to trap it," Toshiro said softly. "Can you feel me?"

"Yes," I breathed out.

"I'm going to move. Try to keep track of my reiatsu," he said just before he vanished.

My eyes snapped open as I searched the area for him with my actual vision. I felt his presence behind me just before he appeared with his flash step. Despite my power being so attracted to him, his spiritual pressure had flared and was acting like a small barrier to my armor. His hand covered my eyes, drawing a small surprised gasp from my mouth. My kanzashi jingled when he brushed against it as he leaned down, his cheek brushing the top of my ear.

"Keep your eyes closed, Ria," he murmured into my ear. His teeth grazed my ear lobe teasingly before he whispered, "No cheating."

"If anyone is cheating, it's you," I said breathily.

"Use your shikai. Find my reiatsu."

He vanished just as quickly as he had appeared leaving me standing alone and wanting more. This was supposed to be serious and he was still finding ways to tease me. It made me think of this morning, the way his hand had ghosted over my ribs… I shook my head. Focus, Ria. Focus.

I let my senses spread out, the metallic bits of reishi expanding in sync. I could feel him nearby, I just had to actually pin point him. I opened my mind's eye further, filtering out the reishi that composed him and searching only for his spiritual pressure. Finding the reishi that he was composed of would be like cheating. There… There, in my mind's eye I could see a dull, whiteish flame in the trees just beyond the clearing. I focused on it, the flame becoming brighter, more solid. I tried to reach out and touch it, but it vanished as soon as the reishi that was once my armor started to move towards it. He was to my right now, still in the trees. I turned my attention in the new direction and he vanished again.

We continued like this for what felt like only a few minutes, but it must have been hours. In my mind's eye, my perception of time was skewed because I would get so lost in my thoughts but as time wore on I distantly felt my body fall to my knees, then later to the ground. My mind was so busy that I barely took notice of it. Toshiro kept moving further and further away, forcing me to work harder to find him. I knew I was getting tired, but I didn't want to quit. The reishi that had been my armor made it so I could focus on more at once, but I could only see what was near it. Pushing myself was the only way that I was going to get stronger. Finding Toshiro when he moved out of my reishi's range was difficult and took time, but I could do it. I had to get better, faster. Mio...

'Herald, get up,' my zanpakuto said abruptly. I paused in my search for Toshiro and pulled my mind back enough to think words.

'Why?' I asked.

'Someone is at your body,' she said, her will pulling me back into my own head. I collected the reishi that made up my armor as my body became my main focus once more, but it was so far away. I called it back to me, but it was going to be a few minutes before it would reach me. I was lying facedown in the grass. My body was stiff and unwilling to move how I wanted it to. I must have been lying here for a long time.

Something brushed across my bare arm, startling me out of my mind's eye and back into my normal vision. The transition was disorienting and I struggled to move my stiff limbs. Even as I felt something wrapping around my neck I could only weakly move to pull away. I realized it was someone who was kneeling over me, their knee resting on my lower back as their arm wrapped around my neck and bowed my body backwards. I struggled against their grip feebly, gripping their arm to try and relieve the pressure on my neck. They weren't trying to make me pass out, instead constricting my windpipe and cutting off my air flow. It hurt. God it hurt.

"Where's your captain, Ria Yamamoto?" A grumbling male voice said into my hair.

Fear zinged down my spine at the sound of his voice. Without thinking I flipped my zanpakuto around in my hand and stabbed back, aiming for where I could guess his body would be. His free hand caught elbow mid thrust and slammed my hand into the ground. With my armguard still present, it didn't hurt but he kept my hand pinned to the ground.

"Where is he?" He asked again. I felt his tongue drag down my temple to my cheek as he licked my face. It made me cringe even though I couldn't do anything about it. I shifted my leg forward to try and give myself some leverage against his hold on me, but he ground his knee harder into my back, strangling me even more than he had been.

I felt Toshiro's spiritual pressure just before ice blasted through the air above me. The man at my back vanished and I slammed back into the ground, not ready for his sudden release of my neck. I coughed as I covered my neck with my hand to try and ease the pain from my windpipe being slowly crushed. Gradually I rolled over until I could sit up, my sword hand still holding my zanpakuto pressed to the ground to support me as I looked around.

Toshiro was standing between me and the man who had been on top of me. He was a little off to the side allowing me a clear view of the other man who was standing several yards away. He was dressed in an outfit that looked similar to a shihakusho, but it was like an inverted imagine of a Soul Reaper. The outer layer of his outfit was white while the undershirt and socks were black. His skin was a sun kissed tan that almost looked orange against the greenery behind him. His hair was long enough for the ends to disappear behind his shoulders and varied in color from a crisp orange to a burnt red. Crazed grey eyes smiled as he watched us both from behind a white mask that covered half of his face, from his right cheekbone up to his hairline in a smooth arc.

"I have a message for you, Captain of Squad 10," The man said as he propped his hand on his hip. His mouth was odd as he spoke, like light was filtering in from behind his teeth.

"Hurry up and say it before I kill you," Toshiro replied as he shifted his stance. He had drawn Hyorinmaru sometime before he had arrived, his zanpakuto already in its shikai state.

The other man chuckled to himself before saying, "You and your companions have until tomorrow to return to the Soul Society without Ria Yamamoto. For every day that you linger, we will return Mio Yamamoto to her beloved sister, one piece at a time."

"You can't honestly expect us to do that," Toshiro said like the other man's words meant nothing to him.

"The decision is yours. If you wait long enough, we will eventually run out of pieces to send," the other man said with a nonchalant shrug. He turned, giving us his back as he raised his palms to the sky. His movements exposed a sheathed dagger at the small of his back and a small hole that ran through the back of his head, the other side of it coming out through his mouth. "Doesn't matter to me either way."

Toshiro didn't say anything as he launched across the space separating them. The other man turned drawing his dagger before their blades clashed. They exchanged several blows, parrying each other before they separated to size one another up. They had moved a small distance away, taking the fight far enough away that I could afford to not pay attention as fire erupted from the other man's blade to clash with Hyorinmaru's ice.

Just as I had started to get to my feet the reishi that made up my armor began to form around me. I took hold of a stream of the reishi and lifted it with my mind's eye, putting me back on my feet. As the rest of my armor formed I continued to hold onto the bit that I had grabbed, staring at it for a long moment as an idea popped into my head. What if… I couldn't ask Toshiro without clueing in that man. I would just have to try it and hope that he would understand.

I closed my eyes and let my attention narrow down to just my mind's eye. Opening my hand I let the reishi I had collected float up into the sky under the influence of my power. I could see the other man just as clearly as I could see Toshiro, so I had no issues finding him as I made the golden flecks of my armor's reishi float high above him. I formed my reishi into a clear film that was no thicker than a piece of paper and lowered it behind him. He didn't seem to notice as I attached it to the bottom of his pant leg. I pulled myself away from the bit of reishi just enough to test and make sure it would stay there, but as soon as my power left the reishi it started to fade from my mind, so I quickly grabbed it with my mind's eye. I couldn't let myself get distracted or I would lose it.

I opened my eyes, but didn't bother using my real vision. I needed to make sure that I didn't give that man any reason to suspect that I was up to something. I started walking towards them, but without being able to see what was under my feet I stumbled a few times over the uneven ground.

"Stay back Ria," I heard Toshiro say as he moved towards me, putting himself between me and the other man. I reached out to him, my hand resting on his back for support. I let his body hide mine as I leaned to the side so if I could see from my own eyes I would have been gazing at the other man.

"Five days," I said loud enough for him to hear. "Give me five days before you hurt Mio, and you will have me alone."

"Ria," Toshiro started to protest. I drew my hand down his back and turned my sightless gaze up to him, hoping he would understand that I was doing something. I felt him looking down at me and his muscles tense when he must have noticed that I wasn't using my eyes.

"Why five days?" The other man asked, drawing my attention back to him.

"I know why you want my sister and I. We are the last descendants of Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. You want us dead, and I am not ready to die. Give me five days," I demanded.

"We don't just want you dead, Ria Yamamoto. We want you to suffer. You are the only one to have tried to follow in his foot steps. We want you to find misery and die in torment. Why should we give you time to come to terms with that? It will happen one way or another."

"Because, if you do not you will never have me. I will never be alone or unguarded again if you do not give me this time. Out of all of Genryusai's descents, I am the most powerful. Eventually you won't be able to kill me, just like you couldn't do anything to him or his descendants until he had passed on. Whatever grudge you hold or revenge you have planned will never come to fruition."

The other man's face contorted with a frown as he watched me. I could feel his muscles flexing as he thought over my proposal. He wasn't happy, but he was taking my bluff.

"Two days," he replied abruptly.

"Four," I countered.

"Three."

"Fine," I quickly said before he could change his mind. "Three days."

"Three days, Ria Yamamoto. Your captain and his comrades will be gone, and you will deliver yourself to this spot," He said as he pointed to the ground.

"You have my word."

His eyes narrowed as he watched me. "If I believe you have gone back on your word, you will find your sister in pieces."

"I understand," I replied solemnly.

He vanished as if he were flash stepping and I focused my mind's eye on the reishi I had stuck to his pant leg. I felt Toshiro move under my hand, but as the man moved further away from us I lost the ability to pay attention to my body. He was moving so fast, stepping like Toshiro could when he wasn't slowing down for me. I had nothing to compare his location to though, the lack of reishi around him leading me in the darkness. He passed a blip of reishi, then another and another. He must have been going through town, but how was I going to find him…?

I let a piece of my reishi fall from his pant leg, vaguely tracking it as it attached itself to something and formed a mark on the surface before I returned my mind's eye fully to the part still attached to his pant leg. I continued breaking off pieces and marking the path he took until I was left with only a single fragment attached to him. My sense of him was weak, only giving me a vague picture of him as he stopped. There were other bodies of reishi around him, but he was so far away and I was getting so tired…

Toshiro's spiritual pressure slammed into mine, startling me out of my mind's eye. My eyelashes fluttered as I was abruptly forced into my normal vision. I had fallen once more when I had followed the other man with my mind's eye, though instead of lying on the ground I was cradled in Toshiro's arms. I hadn't felt it until now, but my head was pounding to the rhythm of my heart. It wasn't just a pulsing pain, but a stabbing, grating pain that radiated through the front of my head.

I blinked up at Toshiro, confusion clear in my expression as I asked him, "Why? Why did you pull me back?"

My zanpakuto shifted into my line of sight like she had been standing there the whole time. She was solid unlike before. Her face was covered in silver swirling patterns that shaped her mask and vanished into her hair line like most of her masks had done since my name was She Who Evolves. Under her skin more patterns of silver danced down her neck and across her hands. Her kimono looked like a stormy sky had been captured in the fabric, dark and light hues of grey covering it in dramatic puffs.

"You were pushing yourself too far," she said softly.

"I was following him," I justified. "I tagged him with my armor and followed his path."

"You would have permanently injured yourself if I had allowed you to continue," she said as she knelt beside me. Her hand brushed across my chin and she lifted her fingers so I could see the blood that coated them. My eyes widened at the sight and I raised my own hand to touch my chin. Coming away with blood I grabbed the sleeve of my shihakusho and wiped at the blood until my skin felt dry. All the blood had come from my nose, trailing down my face as it ran.

I felt the sheath move at my hip as she slid our sword back into its sheath before she vanished. I hadn't even noticed that my armor was gone until she had drawn attention to my empty sword hand. I moved to sit up, grimacing as my head complained about the movement. Toshiro's hand pressed into my back to help support me as I struggled to remain vertical.

"He was made of reishi like you or me," I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "What was he?"

"An Arrancar, one of the remaining Numeros," Toshiro murmured as his other hand turned my head so I was looking up at him.

"Numeros?" I asked as I blinked up at him. My eyes didn't hurt, but the pain in my head was making focusing difficult.

"One of the Arrancar that Aizen enhanced with the Hogyoku," he answered.

"He was being controlled by one of those soul candies, wasn't he?"

"I believe so."

I let out a sigh and let my forehead rest on his shoulder. "I'm sorry for stopping you. I couldn't tell you what I was doing without him overhearing."

"I knew you were doing something," He said into my hair as his hand rested on the back of my neck, massaging gently. "But, did you realize what you were doing to yourself?"

"No, I just felt tired. I didn't feel the pain until I was back," I said with a shake of my head that ended abruptly when the pain in my head multiplied. He made a low almost growling sound in his throat as he wrapped his arms around me. "Are you mad at me?" I asked quietly into his shoulder.

He took in a deep breath that moved me with his expanding chest. "Part of me wants to be, but no."

"Why?"

"If I had just killed him like I wanted to, they would still do what he had threatened. They know that we are in the Human World, which isn't surprising, but they are most likely aware of exactly who we brought, which is unexpected. They want you alone, but now we have more than just one day to find them," he murmured as he rested his chin on the top of my head.

"I tracked him back into town. I couldn't tell where he went without reishi to relate to, but I dropped markers along his path. I can follow him with those markers, figure out where he went," I said as I moved to pull away from him.

His arms flexed around me, holding me where I was as he said, "Tomorrow. You need to rest."

"I'm okay, I just needed a breather," I objected, but I didn't try to pull away again.

"Your zanpakuto had me pull you back for a reason. Even after she took your zanpakuto from you, you refused to drop your shikai," He explained softly. "Ria, you earned us more time. Use it and recover your strength."

I didn't bother nodding, knowing it would hurt. Instead I let my body relax into him, telling him that I wasn't going to argue. He held me for a long moment before he shifted me gently and his arm slid under my knees before he lifted me from the ground. I felt his muscles flex before he took off in a flash step, moving smoothly with each step. Without anything to focus on I must have fallen asleep in his arms for a moment, because the next thing I knew he was setting me down on something soft. I hadn't thought I was that tired, but…

"Is she going to be okay?" I heard Orihime ask.

"Yes, she just needs rest," Toshiro responded quietly as his hand slipped from behind my head.

"What happened?"

"She over exerted herself trying to track one of our enemies," he responded, his voice moving away from me. "Apparently, they have a Numeros under their power."

"A Numeros?" Ichigo asked, surprise clear in his voice. "Are you sure?"

"I'm almost positive. He exhibited the same symptoms that Kyrouni and Nakai both did. Grey eyes, knowledge outside of what they should know, resistance to kido based attacks."

"Well shit," Ichigo said with a sigh. "I'll bet we get a visit from Hallibel in the near future."

"I believe it was actually one of Grimmjow's Fraccion, Luien Baras."

"Geeze, they couldn't have picked a worse Arrancar to take over," Ichigo complained. "Grimmjow is gonna flip."

"Maybe that is a good thing," Toshiro said, and idea forming in his words.

I tuned them out as I rolled over, pressing my face into the cushions at the back of the couch. The added pressure against my face relieved some of the pain in my head, but after a moment I felt something hot sliding down my upper lip. I sat up in a flash, pressing my sleeve to my nose as I hung my head. The movement made me dizzy, but sitting like I was on the edge of the couch I didn't have to worry about losing my balance.

"Ria, you're awake," Orihime's voice came from behind the couch.

"I might have bled on your couch," I said, sounding stuffy as I forced myself to not breathe through my nose. "I'm sorry if I did."

"Oh, where are you hurt?" She said as I heard her moving around in front of me.

"It's my head, but I'm fine," I said quickly, waving her off with a small gesture. "I'm just tired."

"It's okay, I can fix whatever is wrong," she said gently. Soft fabric brushed against my hand and I opened my eyes to see Orihime holding a towel up in offering. I gave her a thankful smile as I took it and pressed it to my nose.

"You're a healer?" I asked. "I've heard of some of the abilities that Humans with strong spiritual pressure have."

"Yes, that's one of my abilities. Do you mind?"

I gave a small shake of my head and closed my eyes again, giving her silent permission. A warm glow filled my vision through my closed eyes, but I didn't try to see what she was doing. Instead I paid attention to the pain in my head as it slowly ebbed away. Distantly I listened to the voices in the other room, not so much hearing what they were saying as listening to the rhythm of their speech. Between the soothing glow of Orihime's powers and the deep tones of men talking, the pain in my head eased.

When the glow vanished, I barely noticed. I wasn't thinking about anything, just relishing in the peace of the moment. Soft hands gently coaxed the cloth away from my nose, removing the fabric from my hand. She touched the corner of my jaw and I lifted my head until her touch left my skin.

"There, you should be fine now," she said softly.

"Thank you," I replied in a similar tone as I opened my eyes. Her own kind brown eyes smiled at me before she stood and walked around the couch. I touched my nose, feeling for any remaining blood but it felt like I had never bled in the first place. Whatever she had done had worked great. The only thing I felt now was tired, but I could deal with that.

Slowly coming to my feet I turned towards the dining room where Toshiro, Ichigo, and Kazui were sitting. I moved to join them, tuning into their conversation once more.

"If we can't find them, then three days may not be enough time," Kazui said as he rested his chin on his fingers, much how Ichigo had done this morning.

"I meant to ask you about that," I said quietly as I occupied the seat beside Toshiro. He turned to me, his eyes watching my face carefully. "How did you know when I got close to finding you?"

"Your armor is fairly easy to spot," he answered.

"So, you saw it but didn't feel it?"

"Yes."

I let out a small sigh of relief. "Then he shouldn't have noticed when I tagged him. What was his name? Luien Baras?" When Toshiro nodded, I continued. "I dropped pieces of my armor's reishi on his path. Just before you pulled me back he stopped somewhere. It was so far away, or I was so tired, that I couldn't tell who was near him, but there were several different sources of reishi."

"Sources of reishi?" Kazui asked.

"When I am using my shikai, I can only see reishi. Here if I don't use my eyesight, it's like walking around blind but in the Soul Society I can see anything, everything, all at once." I realized that I was going into to much detail, so I quickly summarized what I had been saying, "So, what I mean by a source of reishi here I mean souls, soul reapers and hollows."

"How many were there?" Kazui asked.

"I-I don't know," I said hesitantly. "I can only see so far from my armor's reishi, and I had divided up what I had tagged him with to drop the markers. It's just blurry what I remember seeing." I closed my eyes as I tried to recall what I had been seeing. I couldn't remember if it had been clearer when I was actually there, but now it was hard to recall anything outside of the Arrancar.

"Can you guess?" Ichigo prompted me.

"Maybe four or five people were near him when he stopped. I couldn't tell you what sort of people they were though," I said with a frown. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help. Everything is just so blurry right now."

"Don't apologize," Toshiro said as he stood. "Come on, you need to rest."

"I'm fine, I…" I stopped myself when I met his gaze. He… He was right. Just a little while ago I had overused my shikai and gave myself some sort of head injury. It may have been healed, but… I stood up, heading for the stairs with Toshiro right behind me. I had been heading for the door to the room I was sharing with Rangiku, but his arm wrapped around my waist. He reeled me in until my back was pressed against his chest, his arms surrounding me in his warm embrace.

"Wrong room," he cooed as he turned me towards the room we had shared last night. I held back a small giggle as I covered his arms with my own, holding him where he was.

"I wasn't planning on sleeping the entire day away," I said in a hushed tone.

"You don't know just how tired your spiritual pressure feels," he murmured. I turned in his arms until I could look up at him. I think I might have lost my balance if I had been standing on my own, but he held me still.

"Will you be there when I wake up?"

His kissed me as he whispered, "Always."

 


	14. The Turning Point – She Who Runs

**Seer**

**The Turning Point – She Who Runs**

"Ria…"

It felt like it had been real, but I remembered it like it was a dream.

"Stay here… Stay safe."

I grasped the bottom of Toshiro's haori as he moved away. He stopped when he felt my hold and turned to me, his gaze surprised.

"Where…"

He knelt over me, his touch caressing my temple.

"Easy, Ria…"

His lips moved with words I couldn't hear. I covered his hand with my own and nodded, because at the time I understood. His hand slid over my eyes and my world went dark.

The next time I woke it was dark out. It had to have been the dead of night because the room was dark as pitch. I rolled over, searching for Toshiro beside me. He wasn't there, the bed undisturbed aside from my own form. I sat up slowly, rubbing at my neck as the sore muscles protested to the use. I hadn't said anything about being choked when Orihime had tended to my head, so I shouldn't have been surprised by the ache. There was probably a nice dark bruise around my neck. Yay.

Glancing around I opened my senses to search for anyone nearby. My hazy memory, dream vision told me that Toshiro wouldn't be around, but there had to be someone in the house. I felt… someone. It must have been one of the Humans, but I hadn't had a chance to associate their spiritual pressures with names yet. Still, with only one person they must have just left someone to either watch the house, or to watch over me.

I had taken off the outer layer of my shihakusho before I had laid down, leaving me in just the under shirt that acted like one of those short robes that humans tended to wear. Getting up I slipped into the rest of my shihakusho and remade the futon. I was regretting having not gotten back into my gigai before I had laid down. At least then my appearance as a Soul Reaper wouldn't have looked sleep haggard and worn out.

Rubbing my face wearily I headed for the bathroom, but was stopped when I ran face first into a barrier in the doorway after I had opened the bedroom door. I stumbled back with surprise, silently happy I had my hand on my face before I had hit it. I reached out, running my hand over the unnaturally smooth surface of the kyomon barrier. Toshiro had placed it here, his spiritual pressure tingling like static along the surface. Something must have happened while I was out, because as I glanced back into the room I saw the barrier covering the window. I was starting to get annoyed with myself for being so weak. Or so stupid.

If I wanted to break the barrier I could, kyomon barriers were used to keep people out, not in. He had put it here for a reason though… If it had just been to keep me safe while I slept then there was no reason for me to bother staying here. If something was happening that I didn't know about…

"Tankyu no Unmei," I called to my zanpakuto as my hand rested on her hilt.

'Herald,' she replied softly.

"Do you know what's going on?"

'I can only see the future you are present in, Herald.' She said it as if she had repeated herself a dozen times, bored and slow.

"So no?"

'No, I do not know what is happening and I wouldn't tell you if I did.'

Yeah, yeah. I knew that she would only break the rules if it was to save me from a change in my fate, but…

"What is my name today?"

'She Who Runs,' she replied.

"Runs? From what?"

'To, from, away, with. You choose your fate today Herald, and right now your name is She Who Runs.'

"A turning point…" my voice trailed off as I thought back to the first turning point in my fate.

'Yes, a turning point.'

I stepped back from the barrier and dropped my hand to my side. The last time I had a turning point it was all bad or eh results. Death, fading, bleeding… It was damn depressing. Now it was running, but what would I be running to? She'd probably tell me something that I didn't want to hear if I asked… "Is there a chance that I'll die today?"

Silence filled the void that I had expected her voice to fill. I shied back further from the barrier before I realized what I was doing. I hadn't known what my zanpakuto was or the full extent of her abilities when she had told me about my first turning point. Now that I knew exactly what she was and what her names meant… I didn't want to die. My first thought had been to figure out what actions I could take to avoid my own death. How selfish I was…

"She Who Runs," I mumbled to myself as I retook my steps towards the door. I rested my hand on the barrier once more, debating over my options. I could run to Mio, follow my markers and try to save her on my own. I could run back to the Soul Society, save myself like my zanpakuto wanted me to do. I could run…

Oh, who was I kidding? I couldn't predict my own future. Trying to plan my day out was as futile as trying to predict a dice roll when the di had a million faces. All I could choose to do now was leave this room, or stay.

"Oh, you're awake," an unfamiliar male voice said, drawing my attention to the hallway. Looking through the barrier at him I inclined my head politely but never took my eyes off him. He was about as tall as Toshiro with black hair parted to one side. Even in the darkness I could tell his eyes were blue from the way that the lights down stairs seemed to gleam off them. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with buttons running down the front and a pair of flat black pants. The outfit didn't do anything to accent his body, but from the way he moved as he walked towards the door I could tell he was light on his feet. He didn't just have high spiritual pressure, he knew how to use it.

"I am Uryu Ishida," he introduced himself as he returned my small bow.

"Ria Yamamoto," I offered. "You and I are the only ones here?"

"And the gigai, yes," he replied with a nod.

"So, they are off fighting," I said, more thinking aloud than speaking to him.

"Not exactly," he said, lifting his voice in a way that told me he was going to hold the details hostage. "If you come down stairs, I can explain what's going on."

"Sorry," I apologized. I didn't move forward as he suggested, instead remaining behind the barrier. I knew he was Human and he wasn't possessed by a soul candy, but I didn't want to break this barrier. I knew that I was being paranoid. "I would rather remain here until Captain Hitsugaya returns."

"You know that if someone wanted to get in there, they would just have to break the walls, right?" He said, sounding genuinely perplexed.

"A kyomon barrier can extend through walls in the Human World," I said with a smile. He wasn't a Soul Reaper or some sort of hybrid like Ichigo, Kazui and Karin were, so I couldn't expect him to know about some of the basics that we were taught in the academy. "When I touch it, I can feel it's surface like a box around this room," I said as I reached out and rested my hand on the surface once more. Toshiro's residual spirit pressure caressed mine as it mingled with the small part of me that still belonged to him. In another day or two I would be back to feeling only like me.

"I didn't know that," he said as he started to reach for his nose only to quickly change the path of his hand to swipe his hair behind his ears.

"It's different in the Soul Society. Reishi makes certain things more or less difficult," I said, but I quickly dismissed the conversation with the wave of my hand. "Will they be back soon?"

"I doubt it," he responded. "I arrived after they had already left, but the gigais down stairs informed me that several of the possessed individuals had gathered near the old train station. Ichigo and the others went to investigate."

"Thank you for updating me," I said as I turned my gaze back to the futon. Toshiro had wanted me to stay here, inside the barrier, where he knew I would be safe. "I will be staying here until they return," I said slowly as my hand trailed up to my neck. "I'm still recovering from an event that happened yesterday."

"Do you want me to look at it?" He offered.

Not understanding the context of his words, I turned and gave him a questioning look.

"Your neck. I'm a doctor," he said quickly.

"I'm alright," I said with a small shake of my head that had me forcing back a cringe. I had been avoiding moving my head up until now. "Its just sore. Unless you are a healer like Orihime, I doubt you could do anything that would really help."

"I'll leave you be then," he said with a bow of his head before he turned and headed back to the stairs. I listened to him go for a moment before I closed the door to the room and turned back to the darkness. Walking over to the futon I straightened out the sheets and sat on the comforter. In the Soul Society tatami mats were on the floors of most residences, but here they had some strange fibrous fabric covering the floors of the rooms. It wasn't nearly as comfortable to sit on so I made due with the futon. I untied my zanpakuto from my hip and laid her across my lap under my folded hands and closed my eyes.

I hadn't meditated in several weeks. With everything that had been I had going on recently my free time had dwindled into nothing. Now there wasn't anything to do unless I wanted to try and sleep. Knowing that they were out there had me on edge. I wanted to go to them, but I knew it was a bad idea. I was weak in the Human World. Sure, I could manipulate the world around me, but it took a lot more energy and didn't work as well. It was like molding pottery with only a chop stick instead of your hands.

She Who Runs…

I hadn't tried to figure out my names before. Any time I had come close to understanding my names, it was always my zanpakuto who helped me to understand as the event was occurring or I had the sudden, horrible realization of what my name really meant. She Who Struggles, She Who Reveals, She Who Loses, She Who Belongs…

I pushed the thoughts from my head, shoving all the unhelpful memories back into their filing cabinet. The filing cabinet had once been filled with all the pleasant but boring events in my life. Now I had an entire drawer dedicate to the last three weeks, where originally that space would have been occupied by several years. Everything was happening so fast…

A familiar spiritual pressure ignited in the distance. My eyes snapped open as another lit up beside it. One of them was Lieutenant Madarame, but the other was unknown to me. Just how many people did Mr. Grey Eyes have under his control? Several more spiritual pressures seemed to ignite in the same area. Rangiku, Captain Sui Feng, two other Soul Reapers that felt so similar that they must have been Ichigo and Kazui, the Arrancar from yesterday, and more that I didn't recognize.

I focused on the spiritual pressures that I didn't recognize. They were so dark like they had been filled with rage so long that it was all they were anymore. The man in my zanpakuto's vision had felt like these individuals but in a much purer form. He had sparked fear like I had never felt before in my heart. These people just felt like they had been tainted. I focused on their spiritual pressures as they sparked and boomed with their fighting. Now that I knew where they were I could keep them in my head even as they vanished and reappeared with their attacks like Captain Sui Feng.

A weaker spiritual pressure flared only a small distance away, drawing my attention away from the ones flaring across town. Unless someone was suppressing their spiritual pressure, they normally didn't sneak up on me like that. I must have let myself become to engrossed in the battles. Turning my attention fully to the spiritual pressure down on the street I had to rub my forehead. Maybe I was more tired than I thought, because I kept getting the person below mixed up with a darker version of myself.

…

Mio.

It had to be her. I wouldn't mistake my sister, even if she felt dark and angry.

I jumped up from the futon and dashed over to the window, pressing my back against the wall beside it. Slowly I leaned around the window's edge, peering down to the street from my vantage point. The room's window was on the side of the house, not the front, but I could see her clearly as she emerged from behind the neighbor's tall fence. She looked just like she had in the Soul Society, her black braided hair draped over her right shoulder. Her hands were clasped elegantly at her waist as she took small steps because of the restraining fabric of her kimono. Her gaze was all for where she was going, but even with the angle I could see her grey eyes. She was still being controlled by the soul candy…

I started to reach for the barrier, intending to break it, when a second person emerged from behind the fence following her path. He was dressed in a maroon colored haori that he had pulled closed unlike how the captains tended to wear them. A long silver chain necklace hung over his haori, little blue orbs attached to the links in even increments. Grey hakama pants covered him from the waist down, tied to his waist by a white sash. At his hip a sword hung, swaying with his movements like it had belonged there for a very long time. His hair was a rich brown highlighted with lighter brown streaks as if he spent a fair amount of time in the sun.

He took a few steps after Mio then paused, his stance shifting as he looked around. A slow smile turned his lips just before his eyes found me at the window, my hand still outstretched towards the barrier. Irrational fear pierced me, freezing me to the spot as I met his grey gaze. He had no spiritual pressure. If I hadn't been looking right at him, he never would have been there in my head. Slowly his lips parted so he could bare his teeth in a sickening grin.

Remembering myself I moved away from the window. My heart was pounding, my breath coming out in short pants. That was him, the man from warehouse who had tried to take Tankyu no Unmei from me, the man that she had seen in her vision. I couldn't feel his spiritual pressure, but I knew it. Those eyes belonged in that man's face.

They were coming for me. They had set up a distraction for everyone. Had they known that I had incapacitated myself? Were they expecting me to be defenseless right now, or did they know that Orihime had healed me? And Ishida… He felt like he was strong, but if he was just feeling spiritual pressure like I had been he would have no idea what was coming. I couldn't just sit here and let him get jumped. Damn it.

I slid the window open with a flick of my wrist and punched through the barrier with a push of power. I felt the barrier crumble around my hand before I jumped from the sill. Landing in the small strip of yard that lined the side of the house I ran to the corner that rounded to the front. There was no doubt in my mind that the man could feel me moving. I couldn't suppress my spiritual pressure very well, so I didn't even bother trying. If I could just get Mio alone for a few minutes it would give me the opportunity to figure out how to get that soul candy out of her.

That in itself was a problem though. She was being controlled by him, or a copy of him. Whatever he had done, she would try to kill or incapacitate me if I got close. Mio had never been a fighter though, and I was counting on that. Both Takeshi Nakai and the Arrancar had used abilities that were natural to their body, even to their own fighting style. If the same applied to Mio, she would be easy to subdue.

I drew my zanpakuto and tonelessly whispered her name, "Tankyu no Unmei, Maebure no Shukufuku." He knew I was here, to hell with keeping my spiritual pressure quiet. My shikai's armor formed in a rush of power as I pushed it to from quickly. It snapped into place around me, the fabric of my sleeve sounding like it had torn from my body instead of dissolving. I quickly collected every bit of reishi in the vicinity and brought it to my body, turning what little bit there was into clear bits of my armor. I attached the reishi to my shihakusho so I could pull it out later.

"Come on out Little Miss Yamamoto," he called out. He sounded exactly like he had at the warehouse when he had stomped down on my shoulder.

I stepped out from around the corner, a plan forming in my head as I moved. He and Mio were both standing just inside the gate. Mio was standing just in front of him while his hand rested on her shoulder. His fingers caressed the fabric of her kimono like he was someone besides her captor. It made me sick to see, but I forced the anger down.

"You're the one who is controlling everyone," I stated flatly as I turned my body cautiously to give him my armored side.

"Its more like, I am everyone," He paused for effect in the middle of his words.

"So those Soul Candies are just copies of you?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew his answer.

"Yes," he said, sounding pleased. "Do you like them? I find it very flattering to see myself inside so many people."

"Who are you?" I asked, clearly sounding disgusted.

"You and your lovely sister here are Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto's great, great, great something or another granddaughters," He said as he counted on fingers then shook his hand to dismiss the thought. "I lost track of the greats several generations back. Your family bred like rats."

"And now they are all dead thanks to you," I spat at him.

"I know! Isn't it great!" He cheered. "All of you retched filth are almost gone! There's just two of you left and you are both right here. Ripe for the picking," He said as he mimicked plucking a fruit from a tree.

"You are sick," I growled as I dropped into my sword stance.

"And you look so delicious," he said as he smacked his lips, mocking me.

I started to lunge at them, but Mio beat me to it. She came at me, pulling a dagger from the sleeve of her kimono. I dodge back, avoiding her unpracticed swing with ease. I needed to put just enough distance between the two of them… She reversed the dagger in her hand, her movements becoming faster and better aimed as she backed me up. Even if this guy was controlling her, she was still Mio and still pregnant. I couldn't hurt her so I had to be careful.

I blocked her next swing with the back of my sword hand, catching the blade in the plates of my armor. Quickly I flicked my wrist, stripping her of the dagger and surprising her. He may have been good with blades, but my sister wasn't conditioned and her grip was weak. I caught the sleeve of her kimono in my hand and yanked her forward. She stumbled with the force and I darted behind her, grabbing her other sleeve and quickly tied the fabric in a knot. I pulled the knot high, dragging her arms back so she couldn't fight back against me. With her disabled for the moment I let my attention shift back to Mr. Grey Eyes and sent my power into the ground at his feet. Pushing with my power I folded the concrete he was standing on over his feet like it was made of liquid before quickly withdrawing my power to leave it just as hard as it had been.

"You bitch!" Mio howled as she struggled against my hold on her sleeves. She let herself fall from her feet, the weight of her body throwing me off balance as I tried to support her without hurting her. Thanks to Mr. Grey Eyes over there I knew just how bad it hurt to have your arms bent in ways they weren't meant to go. I called on the extra reishi I had collected and formed them into thin silver ropes that I wound around her elbows, pulling them tight behind her back. She screamed in frustration as I let her fall to her knees. It wasn't a scream of pain though, so I ignored her for a moment to turn back to Mr. Grey Eyes.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," Mr. Grey Eyes growled. He wasn't fighting against the concrete I had solidified over his feet. Instead he was standing calmly where I had stuck him, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

I didn't stick around to see what he was going to do. It would take him a minute to free himself from the concrete and I needed whatever time I could get to try and free my sister from his control. I lifted my sister from the ground, wrapping my arm around her upper torso and heaving her high enough to get her feet mostly off the ground. Once I was sure I wouldn't drop her I flash stepped away awkwardly, the weight of her throwing off my movements. I wasn't holding her like Toshiro usually carried me, but it made me wonder how on earth he did it.

I couldn't make it as far away as I had wanted to be, but my arms had grown tired with her weight. I ended up stopping at near the river that ran through town. I dropped her on the grassy bank before I bent over to try and catch my breath. Mio was taller than me, and pregnant, but I hadn't realized just how heavy another body was. Being unable to use one hand because I had to hold onto my zanpakuto didn't help either.

Glancing over to my sister I saw she was on her feet, struggling against the ropes I had bound her arms with. At my movement, her grey eyes turned to me and she ran at me. "I'm going to kill you," she spat out as she moved to kick me. Clearly Mr. Grey Eyes was used to wearing a hakama and not a kimono because he misjudged the fabric of the kimono and ended up taking Mio's feet out from under herself with the force of the kick. She fell on her butt, screaming curses at me the entire time.

I stood and watched her struggle to get back to her feet as I thought furiously. I needed to get that soul candy out of her. Maybe I should have taken her to that shop we had first arrived at. Surely, they would have some way to get this thing out of her. Frowning, I closed my eyes and looked at her solely with my mind's eye. I hadn't needed to see spiritual pressures yesterday to follow that Arrancar, I had followed him with reishi. It had been silly that I hadn't used the skill I had been learning yesterday to follow him, but now I knew I could use it.

I pulled at the breast plate of my armor with my free hand, forcing the reishi to flake and become the floating golden bits that it had been yesterday. I didn't pull all of my armor off, just the breast plate and part of my obi. It was just enough to cast a golden glow across us as the reishi pulsed with my reiatsu.

Mio lunged at me once she got back to her knees, her mouth open and teeth poised to sink into me. The wild expression on her face startled me and I grabbed her by her kimono to throw her down on the ground. She hit hard, her back slamming into the grass. I mentally cursed at myself for being so rough but I didn't let it distract me. I climbed on top of her, sitting on her diaphragm and holding her chin in my hand as I forced her head back. I closed my eyes once I knew that I had her pinned and opened my mind's eye.

Sorting through reishi, feelings, sounds and reiatsu was easy after following Toshiro around for hours. It was just a matter of finding Mio, a much weaker spiritual pressure. But I had her here, pinned beneath my body. I stared down at her spiritual pressure as it flickered beneath me. Reiatsu always had a color to it, but the colors varied from person to person depending on the type of person that they were. Mio had never been strong enough for her reiatsu to show to the naked eye, but I had always imagined her to be a rosey pink color. But, as I stared down at her, grey glared back at me. It was like her spiritual pressure had completely melded with the darkness I felt in everyone else. I could still feel her, but there was absolutely no definition between her and the soul candy.

I sat up as I stared down her in confusion. I had expected to find the separation between her spiritual pressure and that of the soul candy. She thrashed beneath me, her legs kicking frantically and her arms fighting against the bindings at her elbows. She tried numerous times to turn her head and bite me, but I held her still. Tears crept into my eyes as I wondered… Was my sister even in there to save? Amagi had come out of it, but he had only been under the soul candy's control for twenty minutes? Maybe thirty? If she was so consumed by the soul candy that I couldn't tell the difference between them, what about everyone else? Were they lost?

I felt a spike of spiritual pressure an instant before an overwhelming force slammed into my side. It carried me clear off my sister and I felt my body rolling like a rag doll across the grass and into the shallow bank of the river. I coughed as I registered the water that had almost choked me when I had landed face down, burning my sinuses and making me gag with the effort to clear my air way as I yanked my head out of the water.

"Did you really think we'd just let you take our toy away from us?" A sultry female voice chastised.

I sputtered as I wiped away the water from my eyes while trying to get to my feet. I didn't like water. It was cold, slow and even the best of swimmers could drown in the stupid stuff. Dragging my feet awkwardly through the knee-high liquid I trudged up onto the shore and looked to where I felt the spiritual pressure of the woman. She was standing in the air, the darkness of the night masking her appearance.

I trained my mind's eye on her, filtering back in the reishi I had pushed aside for spiritual pressures. I could see her form clearly even though colors eluded me. She was an adjuchas class hollow of some sort, her body avian in appearance. Long elegant legs tipped with talons protruded from a bone feathered torso that was elegantly shaped like a woman's body. A tail of long feather shaped bones protruded from her lower back looking like something I had seen about show girls in the Human World. Instead of a mouth and nose a bone mask of a jagged beak protruded from her face, flowing up her face and over her head in a mane of bone feathers that tapered out at her mid back.

I swallowed hard as the understanding of just how much shit I was in slid over me. I couldn't fight and hope to win against her. If Mr. Grey Eyes had shown up I might have been willing to try because I hadn't done more than taste his spiritual pressure, but this… She was beyond my abilities.

I took a step back, my heel sinking into the water behind me. I startled and pulled my foot back out.

"Get her into the water," Mio said, drawing my attention back to her. She was standing again, her arms were back at her sides, free from the ropes I had bound her with. That crazy smile I was coming to expect cracked her face as she said, "She can't swim."

My eyes widened at her words. She was right, I couldn't swim. I had been raised to be a proper lady since I had been brought into the Ise Clan. Learning to swim hadn't been part of that curriculum. It shouldn't have surprised me that she would know and say that, but for some reason it did. I… I had to run.

I took off in a flash step, moving down the shore until my path towards the still flaring spiritual pressures of Captain Sui Feng and the Lieutenants. Just as I was turning to move towards them some unseen force slammed into me, knocking me backwards. I almost fell into the river's water but I caught myself, landing on the air only a few feet from the black surface. The Adjuchas was standing in my path towards the others, her claw like hands resting on her hips. "You can't move faster than me, Yamamoto. You're not strong enough."

"You don't know how strong I am," I bit out before I took off across the water. I just needed to dodge her attacks until I could get away from the water. Easy enough… I tried to find a way to get away from the water, but she kept hitting me with whatever power she had, knocking me closer and closer to the water every time. At least her attacks didn't hurt. It was how I would imagine getting hit with a blast of air would feel. I was getting tired from my efforts. I hadn't eaten since early yesterday and I had been exerting my physical strength more than I ever had since my academy days.

A deep, seductive laugh came from the Adjuchas as she covered her mouth. "Would you just hurry up and die already? Playing with you was fun, but it's getting boring now."

I should have never left the barrier that Toshiro had put up. They had baited me and I fell for it.

Toshiro… Now that I thought about it, I didn't feel him, Rukia or Renji. Where were they? Shaking my head I drew my thoughts back. I had to save myself this time… Squarely facing the Adjuchas I changed my stance so I was holding my zanpakuto's hilt with both hands. Her hilt wasn't designed for being wielded with a two-handed grip, but I made it work.

"Oh?" She cooed as she tilted her head to the side. "Are you trying something different? How cute."

I didn't answer, instead putting my energy into charging at her. I collected the bits of reishi that belonged to my breast plate, forcing them to follow in a golden trail behind me as I moved. I solidified the flakes, flattening them into little golden discs. I swung at her in a powerful downward strike. She parried my attack with her talons and made to swing at me with her other set of claws. The golden discs I had formed behind me slammed into her… and crumbled. Not what I had been going for, but the distraction it created allowed me to slip around her. I collected the fragments of reishi and forced them to retake the form of my armor before I took off in a flash step away from the river.

I smiled to myself as I stepped over the buildings, pushing for as much speed as I could. I felt the Adjuchas's spiritual pressure spike and jumped up. The force of her power took my feet out from under me and I slammed into the side of a building when I couldn't control my flash step. I shook off the dazed feeling that tried to inhibit me and stepped away again. I had to get to the others.

"Come back here you weak little shit," she cursed behind me. I didn't respond to her, instead opting to put a few structures between her and I. Maybe interrupting her line of sight would make her abilities less effective.

A dark and terrifying spiritual pressure flared just before Mr. Grey Eyes appeared stepping beside me. I barely had a moment to register him before he had his sword drawn and was lashing out at me. I dropped my flash step and let myself fall to the ground to avoid his swing. Landing steadily on both feet I blocked his downward swing with my zanpakuto. He had put the force of his flash step into it, the weight and momentum of him bringing me down to one knee. He had hit just as hard as I remembered Toshiro doing with far less effort in the training hall.

"There you are," he said as he flashed me a toothy smile. His sword slid along my blade and I felt the leverage of his strength begin to overpower me. I gathered myself and thrust back at him before I jumped away, putting some distance between us. His haori was sliced in several placed, small cuts marring his skin under the damaged fabric. I licked my lips nervously as I felt the Adjuchas stop on the building behind me. I couldn't run with them blocking my paths.

"I was hoping you would still be feisty when I found you. That Quincy friend of yours was unexpected," He said with a grunt as he rolled his shoulder.

"Ishida?" I said with surprise. He had been a Quincy? We had been told at the academy that they had all died during the attack on the Soul King's Palace… Just what sort of friends did Toshiro have?

"I didn't bother catching his name," he said with a chortle. "Why would I care about something like that? He was just a distraction."

I took a step back and gripped my zanpakuto tighter. I needed to do something. I couldn't just let myself become their prey. Wherever he was, Toshiro would feel me if I burned bright enough.

I took a slow, deep breath and called on the power that my zanpakuto and I shared. She pulsed in my hand, her hilt growing hot under my touch as she resonated with the power. My armor began to flake away from me, the breast plate, obi and the plates that covered my thighs dissolving into golden flecks of reishi. My senses became sharper as my mind's eye took over my vision, highlighting him and the Adjuchas as the only sources of reishi nearby. The power I was building seemed to attract the lingering reishi in the air around us. It wafted down from the sky like white flakes of snow until it came into contact with my armor's reishi and shifted, assimilating and becoming golden with my reiatsu.

"What are you doing Miss Yamamoto?" Mr. Grey Eyes asked with amusement. His own spiritual pressure burst out like an explosion. My heart lurched in my chest as panic suddenly seized my body. Cold sweat slicked my skin as my body shook with fear. He was so strong and the darkness of his power was terrifying. He was easily at the level of a Lieutenant if not a Captain. I swallowed hard as I found myself having trouble breathing under the force of his reiatsu, but I didn't stop trying to grow my own power. Surely I was exerting enough spiritual pressure to have attracted attention. Hopefully they weren't too distracted to notice…

"What's wrong? You're shaking." He teased as he took a step towards me. His spiritual pressure beat at my instinct to run, but I held my feet still. That adjuchas was behind me. If I ran I was sure she would pounce on me.

"Preparing," I said just before I slammed my armor's reishi into the ground. He came at me, swinging his sword from his side. I blocked it but his swing was so strong that it slid down my zanpakuto to grind against my hand guard. I heaved the ground between us up, a fist sized rock slamming into his jaw. He bit out a laugh before his fist came around and broke through the rock and slammed into my shoulder pauldron. I brushed off the blow and struck at him again while using the ground to strike at him. We continued our bout for several more strikes. I would swing at him and he would block or parry my sword before dodging what I threw at him from the ground before breaking through it to swing at me. His skills in Mio's body had been rather pathetic, but in his own body I couldn't seem to even graze him while he connected with the remaining plates of my armor over and over again.

I stumbled back when his fist connected with left shoulder and lifted a wall of concrete between us. I couldn't change the composition of things in the Human World, so I should have been surprised that his bare hand could break through my materials like it was. He was a much more skilled with zanjutsu than I ever was. I couldn't even block his attacks. My only saving grace was that for whatever reason he wasn't trying to disarm me, like it was fun for him to be dealing with my shikai state. I felt his sword bite into the small wall I had made as he moved to slice it in half. I let it melt back into the ground, giving me an even surface to move across. I had lost my normal vision when my mind's eye took over, so I was relying on the ground being nice and smooth.

"Oh-ho! I see! You've figured out how to actually use your shikai!" He cheered. "The last time I saw you myself you were so pathetic. Sticking yourself in a box like that. Such a stupid child you were."

"So pathetic that you couldn't even disarm me when I was incapacitated?" I said, spurring him on out of fear.

"You were lucky. I was suppressing my spiritual pressure so I could sneak around unnoticed. If I had wanted you then, I would have had you." He said simply.

"If you had been smart about it you would have killed me instead of trying to play with me."

"Aw, but that's no fun Miss Yamamoto. If your pesky Captain had just stayed out of things, we could have had such a great time together by now." His winked at me as the corner of his mouth curled in a devilish grin.

I lunged at him first this time, swinging down on him. He dodged to my right and retaliated, his blade skimming down the plates of my shoulder pauldron. I jerked away from his sword and lashed out with the ground beneath us, placing a pillar between his sword and my arm before I stabbed at him. I almost connected with him, but the back of his hand connected with the back of my blade, knocking my strike awry. His sword cut through the pillar before he raised his arm and brought the hilt down on my shoulder pauldron. I heard the metal crack under the force of his blow and pain burst stars into my vision.

I lurched back from him, catching myself with the ground as nausea rolled over me from pain and I stumbled. I looked to my shoulder, the movement shooting pain down my arm and to my fingertips in lightning like shocks. His hilt strike had broken through my armor to hit the bundle of nerves that controlled my arm. The edges of my armor that he had broken through had sunk deep into my skin and muscles. Hot blood ran down my arm under the remaining plates of my shoulder pauldron and to my arm guard. The only reason I hadn't dropped my zanpakuto was because the injury had caused the muscles in my hand to seize in a twitching fist.

"Aw, did I hurt you?" He said with mock concern.

"Shut up," I growled out as I pulled my shoulder pauldron from my skin, turning into golden flecks of reishi. I bit back a cry as the metal left my flesh and my arm muscles twitched and gave. I caught my zanpakuto before it fell from my unresponsive hand. Holding my zanpakuto awkwardly I pushed my pain to the back of my mind and pulled my pauldron's reishi back to my skin. Turning it into thread I stitched the wound closed like I had done to my abdomen after Amagi had stabbed me. Distantly I knew it hurt, the damaged nerves in my arm were making it harder to think as they screamed.

"Here I am being nice and letting you patch yourself up and all you do it tell me to be quiet? How rude, Miss Yamamoto. How rude," He chastised me as I finished lacing the golden thread across my skin.

I stood straight again, trying to hide a grimace as the pain bled through my ability to categorize and ignore sensations. My arm hung uselessly at my side, the arm guard sliding off my skin as I turned it into reishi as well. Blood still welled from my wounds, but instead of falling in a stream down my skin it oozed out slowly from under my stitches, keeping the trails that covered my skin fresh.

I was going to lose against him. With a single hit he had broken my armor and disabled my sword arm. Trying to wield my sword with my left hand would be about as fruitful as trying to slice an apple with a spatula. He was going to kill me, or make me his play thing if no one showed up soon. My spiritual pressure was fading now, a result of exhaustion as it wore away at me. There was just no way…

Mr. Grey Eyes sheathed his sword and let his smile drop from his face. A predator looked at me through his eyes, eager and hungry. The look in his eyes said he knew he had me. And I… I knew it too. I may have put up a good fight and even might have hurt him if I had gotten lucky, but he was just biding his time.

"You are the last person that I need to kill, the last of the Yamamoto line. I am going to enjoy your death like I have never enjoyed them before."

In a single flash step he was in front of me. His hand moved faster than I could see, catching my neck and taking me with him to the wall. He slammed my back into the structure, forcing the air from my lungs with the power of it. My chignon protected my head from cracking against the wall, but I felt the pins of my kanzashi tear into my flesh.

"Time to be mine, Miss Yamamoto," he murmured.

I gasped air back into my lungs while fighting his grip around my throat and moved to stab him with my zanpakuto. He caught my wrist in his hand. Forcing my hand to turn, he slammed my knuckles into the wall as he tried to make me drop her hilt. I clenched my fist as hard as I could, try not to lose her as my knuckles began to bleed.

'Tankyu no Unmei,' I called to my zanpakuto in my head.

'Herald,' she responded.

'Take control of our shikai,' I ordered her. 'If he disarms me, I'm as good as dead.'

She hesitated for a moment before she asked, 'when shall I give you control back?'

'When I need it most,' I replied.

'As you wish.'

Like I had never been holding my zanpakuto, it vanished leaving my hand empty. My mind's eye dimmed but I didn't lose it completely. My normal vision returned and I gazed up at him defiantly. My spiritual pressure plummeted as she took it into herself. When she had damaged our bond, I had absolutely no sense for reishi, just the armor that covered my body. Now I could still see and feel everything, but with my zanpakuto in control I couldn't manipulate any of it. Good…

"What did you do?" He asked, a small shrill of outrage in his voice. "Where is your zanpakuto?"

"I gave it away," I answered, trying to sound cryptic despite my still gasping breaths.

For a moment he looked enraged, but his face abruptly changed and became pleasant. "No matter." His hand slid from my wrist and covered my hand, forcing my palm to open. I started to move to jab my knee into him, but his body pressed closer to mine, pinning me to the wall. His fingers wrapped around my palm, separating my pinky from the rest of my fingers. My stomach sank as I realized what he was doing and I struggled harder to no avail.

"I'm going to break you," he murmured softly before he snapped my pinky from its socket.

"One piece," he snapped the next finger.

"At a time." He snapped my middle finger.

"Until there's nothing left to break." He snapped my index finger.

With each finger he snapped, I did my best to shove the pain to the back of my head. Instead of wailing in pain like I would have without my shikai, I clenched my teeth to muffle the whines that I couldn't suppress. When he was done he released my throbbing limb and slid his hand up to my face. He caught me off guard, pressing his fingers into my cheeks and between my teeth before I could clamp my mouth closed.

"You and I are going to have so much fun," he cooed as he plucked a blue orb from his necklace. I realized as he shoved the orb into the back of my mouth that it was a soul candy. I tried to spit it out, but his hand closed over my lips at the same time that his fingers pulled away from my cheeks. His thumb pressed up into the soft tissue under my jaw, stopping my tongue from working to free the soul candy from the back of my throat.

"Be a good girl and swallow," he ordered me as he pressed his thumb harder into the underside of my jaw. It cut off my air and made my mouth water with the foreign sensation. He pressed more of his weight into me forcing panic to set in my chest as my vision started to become dark and splotchy. He slid his hand forward a bit then slammed my head back into the wall. The soul candy slipped down my throat and involuntarily I swallowed it.

A foreign power surged through my body, feeling so much like Mr. Grey Eyes that I stopped struggling against him. His hand slid from my mouth, allowing me to breathe again. I took in short breaths as I felt his darkness spreading through me. I pushed against it with my own power, praying that I was too strong for it. The power shied back from mine for a moment before it too surged up. I pushed back, fighting against its will to dominate me. If I hadn't been so tired I probably could have fended it off, but as it was I could feel myself slowly slipping away.

Beams of light rained down from the sky, sticking in the ground around us like arrows. I didn't react, unable to move my body as I fought against the force inside me. Mr. Grey Eyes cursed and drew away from me, turning to look at whoever had interrupted him. I couldn't seem to look, but even with my attention focused on fighting back the dark energy inside me I could feel several more people nearby. Help had arrived, but they didn't know that they were too late.

Mr. Grey Eyes grabbed my hand and tugged me forward. Unable to filter out the pain while I was fighting with his spiritual pressure a scream ripped from my throat and my knees gave out. He released me and I felt his physical presence vanish just as a mist of ash lashed through the air in front of me. Voices were speaking, and I heard my name said several times as if someone was trying to get my attention.

Hands clasped either side of my face, carefully avoiding the tender spots on my skin as they turned my face up from where I had started staring at the ground. I met Rangiku's concerned blue eyes.

"Oh no, look at her eyes," She said as worry mottled her beautiful face.

"I'm losing," I whispered. "I'm too weak."

"We will find a way to fix this," she promised me as my vision slowly faded.

"Don't let me… Kill myself," I managed to get out as I felt my control over my body changing hands.

Rangiku turned her gaze to someone behind her before she said, "We need Captain Hitsugaya…"

I lost control over myself then. I could feel the dark presence of Mr. Grey Eyes' spiritual pressure laughing in my head as he overwhelmed my mind. I couldn't fight it any more. I was so tired…


	15. The Turning Point - She Who Drowns

I… was floating. I could feel my body, the pain that emanated from every injury in throbbing waves, how my arms were bound behind my back from my biceps down, my mouth gagged with a cotton like material. My body was moving, struggling against the binds to no avail. I wasn't moving though, I could just feel it happening. I was just… floating.

"We can't just leave her like that," Rangiku said, her voice distant like she was in another room.

"What do you suggest we do with her? We can't get the soul candy out of her like we can our gigai. It just doesn't work," Ayasegawa responded to her, also sounding distant.

"We could beat it out of her," Lieutenant Madarame's voice said in an annoyed tone.

"No we can't," Rangiku snapped. "That's still Ria's body. She's in there somewhere. We can't go beating the crap out of her body just so she spits up the soul candy. Even if it would work her body is rejecting my kaido."

"It's the only idea we haven't tried yet," Renji said.

"There's got to be another way," Rangiku mused. "Did Toshiro or Rukia say anything about when they would be back?"

"No," Renji responded shortly.

"What are they doing back in the Soul Society anyway? Leaving us here to play baby sitter…" Lieutenant Madarame griped.

"If it wasn't for this whole situation you would still be sitting at the Squad 11 barracks being bored out of your minds," Rangiku pointed out.

"You've got a point there," Lieutenant Madarame grumbled.

I opened my eyes as they started arguing, flinching back as light blinded me. I wasn't looking through my body's eyes or that of my mind's eye. This was… different. It was like I was underwater and still able to breathe. A sun made of green and blue light shone above me, casting light across my bare body. It was warm against my skin, but the part of my body that was cast in shadow was cold. I turned to look down at the darkness below me. It seemed never ending and all consuming.

"You are drowning," Tanyu no Unmei said as she appeared beside me. Her appearance didn't surprise me though, like I had known she was there. Her kimono reflected the world around me from the bright greens and blues of the sun to the pitch black darkness that waited below. Her mask looked like she had pressed sea foam to her skin and dashed it with rainbows from the sky. Her hair wafted around her as if she were under water, swirling in elegant arcs with the small current that her movements made.

"I don't feel like I'm drowning," I said in reply as I looked her over, watching her kimono and hair in wonder.

"But you are. His spiritual pressure is slowly eating at you," she said as her teal gaze flicked over to me. "I brought you here, to our inner world, so I could try to shelter you from him."

"This is where you are most of the time?" I asked, my voice filled with wonder.

"Yes, it changes as your names change. Right now, your name is She Who Drowns. Hence, the water." She reached out to me and ran her fingers down my bare arm. "You are not allowed to be here normally. This place allows you to see too much of the future, but if I hadn't pulled you in I fear you would have never woke."

"Have I been out long?" I asked as my hand went to my head. I remembered everything, but I had expected to be completely unaware of what was going on while the soul candy of Mr. Grey Eyes was in control of me.

"No, an hour or two at most," she said with a slow shake of her head.

"Oh, my turning point," I mumbled to myself. "Last time you gave me three names. Why aren't you this time?"

"Because I cannot tell which of your names are more prominent. There so many things that can happen today." She let out a small sigh rested her chin in her palm. "I can tell you that if you do not do something, you are going to be consumed by the darkness below."

I didn't look down to the darkness, instead making it a point to look up at the light. I lifted my hand, reaching towards the green and blue sun. It felt so far away and I didn't know how to swim. I let my fingers glide through the water as I brought my hand back to my side.

"Thank you, Tankyu no Unmei." I said softly.

"Save yourself Herald. If I am corrupted by the darkness I fear I will be under his control. You are on your own in this world," she said before she vanished. I frowned at the spot she had been, wondering where she had gone. I turned my attention back to sun I started awkwardly trying to swim up.

"For Soul Reapers, all of you seem to get off topic easily," my zampakuto's voice came from nowhere. I hesitated in my movements until I realized that my body was hearing her, not my consciousness. I continued pressing my way to the surface as I focused on my body. There was a chorus of surprised voices and questions, but one voice stood out from the rest.

"Tankyu no Unmei?" Rangiku asked, her voice sounding surprised.

"Who the fuck is that?" Lieutenant Madarame asked.

"Ria's zanpakuto," she answered. "How are you manifested? Are you being controlled by the soul candy?"

"What are the Captains doing in the Soul Society?" My zanpakuto prompted them by quoting Lieutenant Madarame's earlier words. No one seemed to say anything in reply for a long moment.

"Head Captain Kyoraku called them back to speak in person," Renji said slowly.

"Lieutenant Matsumoto, why are you anxious for your Captain to return?"

"Ria fought off one of those Soul Candies before, right?" She paused for a second as if waiting for a reply, then continued. "She said she was too weak to do it again when we found her. Captain Hitsugaya's spiritual pressure is already mingled with hers. With the soul candy in charge of her we cannot reinforce her reiatsu with ours and not risk the soul candy getting the boost instead of Ria. So we need him here to do it."

"What if Ria were to be in control?"

"If she were, we wouldn't be sitting here twiddling our fingers," Renji said with a sigh.

"How would you know if she were in charge, leaving her tied up and gagged in the other room?"

"We gagged her so she couldn't use kido or try to bite her tongue off again," Captain Sui Feng answered sounding annoyed. "If we remove the gag, she may try to do something harmful to herself."

"And if I were to tell you she is coming to the surface?" My zanpakuto prompted.

There was a collective pause in noise from everyone in the other room before a door clicked open. My body moved, shifting around so that the soul candy could see who had entered. I couldn't see through my body's eyes, but I could feel the touch of my zanpakuto as her hand roughly grabbed my hair and pulled me up from lying on my side. She pulled the gag from my mouth with one rough tug and held me still for a moment.

"You can't have my Herald," she said softly.

"I already have her," Mr. Grey Eyes said through my mouth.

"How so? You may have her body, but you don't have her mind."

"But I will," he replied as a grin turned my lips. "It's just a matter of time. Your little stunt with your inner world was just a delay."

"She's stronger than you," she said softly as her hand caressed down my cheek.

"Right now, she is weak as a mouse," he replied as my grin dropped and my eyes narrowed. "I will consume her little by little, until there is nothing left."

"I won't let you," my zanpakuto said bitterly as she let go of my hair.

My body fell without her holding me up and I felt my head rattle as it smacked against the floor. The water around me shook with the impact and I felt myself surge towards the surface. I looked down at the darkness below and wished I hadn't. It looked like something was moving down there, like tentacles slithering around in the darkness. I tore my eyes away and stretched towards the surface, struggling against the last few feet of water.

"She Who Drowns," my zanpakuto said softly. "You cannot keep her from drowning Lieutenant, but you can help her breathe for a time."

My fingers brushed the air, the cold of it stinging my skin. Excitement sang through my body as I kicked against the water and surged up. I gasped as my body breached the surface. I was back in my body and looking through my own eyes. Pain slammed into me like someone had taken the dampener off the sound and I writhed on the floor. I heard Rangiku's voice saying something as she knelt beside me, but I couldn't understand her as my focus was consumed by the pain. Every injury I had had before was still there, my right arm a storm of shooting pain, my left hand a giant throbbing mass. My cheeks hurt, the insides torn by my teeth when Mr. Grey Eyes had forced my mouth to stay open. Green light filtered in from behind my closed eyes, but I barely noticed it until the pain in my right arm seemed to dim.

"Don't," I started to say as I opened my eyes. Rangiku's hand was glowing with the use of her kaido as she held it over my right arm. "Leave me incapacitated. I don't think I'll be in control for very long."

"But your zanpakuto said-"

"You're misunderstanding," I said to correct her. "Don't heal my body, just replenish my reiatsu."

Her face lit up in understanding as she said, "You were weak from fighting, not because you were too weak."

"Yes," I hissed out as a particularly painful jolt shot down my arm. She nodded and raised her hand with two fingers pointed up and the rest curled against her palm. She closed her eyes and I felt her spiritual pressure flare as she focused on replenishing my reiatsu.

A small sigh slipped from my lips and I let my body relax. Glancing around the room I figured that we weren't at the Kurosaki house, but instead the little shop we had first visited. The floor was made up of tatami mats and the shoji doors were decorated in some sort of floral pattern. My zanpakuto was standing just behind Rangiku, but she was back to being translucent with only her eyes appearing solid. She was gazing down at me though I couldn't see the expression on her face.

"Why are you intervening?" I asked her in a hushed tone.

"You asked me to when you gave me our sword," She answered. "Besides, with as many names as you have today, I cannot tell what I am supposed to do and not. Talking to people shouldn't influence your fate, so I will assume that is allowed."

I gave her a small grin and resisted the urge to thank her. Our fates were tied together. If I died, so did she. I used to think that it didn't matter to her what happened to us, but now… Now I felt her motivations.

"Ria, why did you leave the barrier? Captain Hitsugaya said that he spoke with you before he and Rukia left and that you knew what was going on." Rangiku asked, her eyes still closed as she focused on her kaido.

"I was tricked," I answered. "I woke up in the middle of the night. The man with the grey eyes brought Mio to the Kurosaki residence and I broke the kyomon barrier to get to them."

"How was she? Your sister?"

"She looked fine on the outside." My voice drifted off as I recalled what I had seen in her reiatsu. "But on the inside… I don't know if she's in there to be saved. There was no separation between her spiritual pressure and his, like they had completely melded."

Rangiku didn't say anything, letting my words hang in the air. She must have understood what I was saying.

"The man in the maroon haori and grey hakama is the one controlling them all. He keeps his soul candies on a chain around his neck. He's strong, so strong. He's at least at the same level as a lieutenant or maybe even a captain. He was playing with me the whole time like it was-" I cut myself off as a strange sensation overcame me. I was partially looking at the surface of the water in my inner world while also looking at Rangiku. I slowly looked down at the water below me and saw a tendril of darkness snaking up from the depths.

"Ria?" Rangiku called my name.

"Stop, he's-" my voice was cut off when I felt the tendril wrap around my ankle and pull me down into the water. I lost control of my body as I was completely submerged. Water raced along my skin as I watched the surface slide further and further away from my out stretched hand. Drawing my head down I glared at the darkness that had ensnared my ankle. I kicked at it with my free foot to try and dislodge it, but it held one and continued to pull me down.

"Miss Yamamoto," Mr. Grey Eyes' voice cooed from the darkness. "Trying to resist me is futile. You might as well give up and join me."

"Like hell that will ever happen," I growled back at him as I hooked my toes under the tendril and put my entire body into removing his grip. It slipped and I kicked furiously to dislodge it the rest of the way. A black mark remained on my skin where it had touched me. I turned my gaze back to the surface and cursed under my breath as I saw just how far down he had dragged me. I began kicking again, pushing with hands and legs towards the surface.

"Ria?" Rangiku asked as I felt her hand brush across my forehead.

"Can't even save one pathetic little girl, how far you Soul Reapers have fallen," he said through my mouth.

"Who are you?" Rangiku asked, her voice dropping with menace.

"I'm Ria, your 3rd seat. Have you forgotten your own squad member Lieutenant?"

"You're in Ria's body, but you aren't her," Rangiku growled. "Who are you?"

"Does it matter? By the time you can do anything with who I am, I will have consumed your 3rd seat. You can't stop me, I'm already inside." A laugh bubbled up from my throat as he smiled.

"Oh, do shut up," my zanpakuto growled. A sharp pain bit into the side of my head just before my face was slammed into the floor. The darkness below seemed to retreat for a moment and I felt myself rising to the surface faster than I could by swimming alone.

"What are you doing?" Rangiku said in a panic. "You can't just do that to your master!"

"The physical wounds are hers to share, but not the wound on their minds from the damage," she answered. "If she makes it through this event, then she can be healed. But, she must get through it first."

"There must be another way of doing that instead of bashing her head against things," Rangiku griped. "Why are you here and not helping her inside?"

"If he controls me while I am running our shikai, he will be able to use our power," my zanpakuto answered. "I cannot risk it. My herald has a sense of morals that will not allow her to misuse our abilities. In the hands of someone like him we could do many unforgivable things. This is why she gave me our sword, control over our shikai."

"Why don't you just drop your shikai then?" Renji asked.

"I am her only source of power. He is eating away at her reiatsu as she regenerates it, but when our shikai is running we become one, so I am able to share my power with her. If I drop our shikai to physically assist her, she will become his victim."

"So, we just need to disorient him?" Renji asked.

"We need to make time for her Captain to return. As things stand, she will drown in his reiatsu before he returns."

"It won't work," Mr. Grey Eyes said in a sing song voice. "I have already tainted her. She's mine."

"I won't let you have my Herald," my zanpakuto growled.

"Too late," he giggled. "Once I have her, then I have you as well Tankyu no Unmei. We will have so much fun."

I breached the surface of the water once more and assumed control of my body. I was panting with the effort I had put into swimming to the surface despite my body having never moved. Unlike the first time I had taken my body back I was still partially viewing the ocean I was swimming in, like I couldn't come completely to the surface.

"How long?" I rasped out.

"As long as you can Herald," my zanpakuto answered.

I nodded and looked down in my inner world. Tendrils of darkness were stretching towards me like snakes as they wove up through the water. Licking my lips nervously I turned my attention back to my body. As long as I can… I let out a rough sigh and closed my eyes. I gave up my efforts to remain at the surface and drew my hands out to my sides, sinking back into the water and losing control of my body once more. I pushed what remaining power I had to my palms as I faced them away from my body and focused on creating a barrier. A yellow barrier began to form at my hands, spreading out like liquid poured onto a table. As it spread it took the shape of cube around me and closed, sealing me inside.

"It won't work," the darkness called to me. The tendrils that had been raising towards me touched the barrier and slid along the walls. I watched in silence as they enclosed around my barrier, consuming the light from the surface entirely. I dropped my hands to my sides as a shiver ran through my body. It was so cold in the darkness…

"We are immune to kido, and barriers are just another form of kido," The darkness cooed. My cube lurched as it was pulled down, slamming me into the wall. I didn't cry out, but instead huddled in the corner.

"If that were true, you wouldn't have needed to lure me out of the kyomon barrier," I said back.

"You are too weak!" he laughed at me. "Your captain set that barrier up. If you had set it yourself we would have easily broken through it." The wall to my right suddenly cracked making me jump with the sharp sound. I scurried away from it, but stopped when another wall cracked. He was crushing my barrier. So much for surviving as long as I could. I had thought my barrier would last longer than a minute.

My barrier cracked and collapsed under the pressure of the darkness, the yellow walls shattering like glass. I brought my arms up to protect my face as I was engulfed in darkness. Where it touched me my skin burned and went numb as it turned black. I tried to push it away from me with my hands, but they sank into the darkness like I had pushed my hand into molasses. It stuck to my skin as I pulled back, crawling up my arms to slick across my shoulders and torso. I struggled fruitlessly against it until it slipped into my mouth and down my throat. I choked on it, trying to spit it out. Unlike the water we were submerged in, I couldn't breathe through whatever the darkness was made of. It suffocated me as it slid into my lungs and I began to panic as my lungs tried to work and failed.

Like someone had pushed pause on a TV, my world froze. The darkness around me froze as well and I wasn't choking. I was still being choked, but I didn't have the panicked sensation that I did only a second ago. I thought furiously in confusion, but even my thoughts seemed to slow and pause.

"A Goyogai barrier?" I heard Rangiku say in surprise.

"Yes," Kisuke replied. "Honestly, with all you Lieutenants here I figured you would have thought of this sooner. A Goyogai barrier freezes the state of the person inside. It's meant to keep people who have been mortally wounded preserved until they can be brought to medical attention, but it works in this situation too." I listened to him for a long moment, but my attention seemed to fizzle out just like my thoughts had.

I don't know how long it was that I waited in the darkness. It could have been minutes or years for all that I knew. It wasn't until I felt a familiar spiritual pressure that time seemed to resume. Toshiro… The darkness seemed to feel the resume in time just like I had, and once again I was suffocating. I tried to grasp at the tendril that was filling my lungs with darkness, but there was nothing to grab. It was just one giant molasses like blob. Oh god, was I going to drown just as I could feel Toshiro again? Was I really going to be so close to being saved, just to be consumed before he could reach me?

"You are mine," the darkness laughed at me. "He's going to be too late."

No… no, no, no. I couldn't lose like this. I wanted to live. I had to live. I had so much to do with my life. I had just started to grow as a person that to be cut off now was a horrible thought. I had to save Mio. She was counting on me to save her and her child. Toshiro… I couldn't leave him behind just as we were getting closer. I needed him in my life. I couldn't die like this. I couldn't!

Power surged through me as I felt the piece of Toshiro inside me ignite. The darkness around me hesitated and drew down my body as if shying away from the power. I was able breathe again, the air flooding my lungs as I coughed away the darkness that had seeped inside me. I turned my gaze up to the surface to see a long, shadowed body descending towards me. I reached out to him, drawing my hand out of the darkness. The black taint flaked off my skin as I stretched my hand towards him, towards Toshiro's reiatsu.

"You can't have her!" The darkness howled in rage as the giant blue dragon became more than shadow in the light filtering down from the surface. The darkness crawled up my body, trying to reclaim the parts of my skin that had lost their taint. I struggled against it, trying to break free as it thinned around me. I kicked against it, but it was so thick that I did little more than move.

"No," Toshiro's voice boomed from above. "She is mine."

My fingers brushed along icy scales as the dragon reached me. Its body was massive as it circled around me, chasing the darkness away. The taint along my skin seemed to retreat when Toshiro's reiatsu brushed along my body in tingling waves. I gasped at the coldness of the dragon's touch as the scales slid along my body, but I didn't shy away and instead reached out with my other hand as well. His power enveloped me and I felt myself come back into my body as I fell to the floor, landing on my left side. My body convulsed as I coughed up black sludge onto the tatami mat. The substance burned my throat and mouth as it came up like it was acid. I heaved for a long moment, gasping between convulsions until finally the blue soul candy shot from my mouth.

My head rested on the floor as I tried to catch my breath. I watched as the soul candy sparked with a thread of darkness and cracked before it fell into two pieces. The sludge around it popped and fizzled before it evaporated into the air leaving a black stain on the mat. Exhausted, my body started to roll forward before a hand caught my waist to stop me. I felt the ropes that bound my arms behind me give and pain flared down my arm as they sagged forward. I cried out as my nerves lit on fire and started to curl in on myself to contain my voice.

Someone shushed me as I was pulled onto my back and my arm shifted to rest on the floor at my side. I pulled my left hand from under my back and I felt one of the knuckles snap back into place with the movement. It made me cringe and bite my lip as I pulled my hand to my chest and resisted the urge to curl around it. A set of fingers brushed across my cheek, coaxing me to open my eyes. Toshiro was looming over me, his eyes filled with concern as he met my gaze. Tears filled my eyes that I tried to blink away, but just ended up causing to fall from the corners of my eyes.

"What took you so long?" I asked roughly, my throat still burning from the sludge I had coughed up.

A small smile crooked the corner of his mouth as he said, "Inside the barrier, I expected you to be safe for a few hours. I can't leave you alone for a second."

I smiled weakly up at him before I closed my eyes and let my cheek rest in his palm. A shiver ran through my body that I quickly tried to force back before it hurt. My body felt like it was growing cold from the inside out. The shiver diminished until a fine quake ran through my body with a chilling wave. Toshiro's hand rested over my sternum for a moment before he cursed under his breath.

"Kisuke," Toshiro said abruptly. "Can we use your healing hot spring?"

"How do you know about that?" The shop owner asked, sounding amused. "Is the Soul Society keeping tabs on little ol' me?"

"Of course they are," Toshiro said in a voice that clearly said 'duh'.

Kisuke chuckled before he said, "Come on, I'll show you where it is."

"Ria," Toshiro's voice said in a much softer tone than he had used with the shop owner. "I'm sorry, but this will hurt."

"If it hurts too bad I'll just pass out," I joked roughly. It was a bad joke though, which was made clear when he didn't respond. I felt my arm move just before pain zinged down my nerves as he rested it over my abdomen. His arm slid under my back and knees as he lifted me from the ground. My toes curled with the effort I put into not making any noise as my whole body cried out un unison. My body was shaking now instead of the fine shiver, but I couldn't tell if it was from the cold that seemed to be growing inside me or the effort I was exerting to bear the pain.

"I've got you," Toshiro gently murmured as I felt him move. Nausea threatened to roll over me, the memory of the sludge burning my throat still fresh in my mind. I clamped my mouth shut and swallowed hard to force the urge back. I rested my forehead in the crook of his shoulder as cold sweat chilled my skin. I tried to distract myself by thinking of something else, but every time a thought occurred to me I would lose it as pain radiated through my arm.

It felt like an eternity of walking and moving down steps, which were horrible, before the sound of a heavy door greeted my ears. Humidity saturated the air in heated waves as we entered the new room. I opened my eyes a slit to see we were underground in some sort of cavern. A hot spring large enough to fit a dozen people sat in the middle of the room. Steam billowed off the surface of the water basking the room in a hazy light.

"Well, you can just throw her in. She'll be fine in a day or two," Kisuke said as he moved at the edge of my vision.

"I gave her more of my reiatsu than she can handle in her current state," Toshiro said as if his limited words explained everything. He moved over to the hot spring and didn't hesitate as he stepped down into the water. A sense of panic hit me when I realized that I was going back into a body of water and I tensed. I was with Toshiro. He wouldn't let me drown, but…

"Captain," my zanpakuto's voice called out, pausing Toshiro's movements as he turned.

My zanpakuto had either appeared or followed us down, which I didn't know, but now she stood only a few feet away. She reached out, her hand touching my knee for balance as she leaned down to me. I felt the sheath at my hip move as she slid our sword into it. Her hand remained on the hilt as she met my gaze and whispered, "You are no longer She Who Drowns. You have passed this trial, Herald." Her hand slipped from the hilt and I felt our shikai drop as she vanished. My sleeve appeared like it had been there all along and I felt the drain of energy as her power left me.

My head lolled back as I found myself lacking the strength to keep it up. I wasn't quite unconscious, but I seemed to be dancing the line. I felt the almost burning heat of the hot spring slide up my body as Toshiro stepped further into the water. It burned along my open wounds like salt, but I didn't have the energy to flinch. My body sank until the water was up to my neck and Toshiro's arm snaked around my waist to keep me from sinking further. He shifted me until I was cradled in the curve of his body, my back pressed to his chest.

"Are you still with me?" He whispered into my ear.

I hummed a reply, too tired to make actual words. His arm flexed around me before his other hand caressed my cheek. The light shifted to a green glow through my closed eyes as he turned my chin so the side of my face was visible to him. I cracked an eye open, my other seeming to refuse my command to open and gazed up at his chin. I started to reach to cover his hand with my own, but hesitated when my fingers throbbed. My pinky had snapped back into its socket, but the other three were still dislocated. He noticed my efforts to bring my hand up and drew his attention from my face. His hand wrapped around mine, careful to avoid touching the swollen and disfigured joints.

"I need to reset these before you are in here too long or they will heal wrong," he murmured. I gave the barest of nods in acknowledgement. I had dislocated a finger before, but it had snapped back into place almost instantly. With my fingers sitting out of socket it hurt so much worse. He shifted me against his body so he could remove his arm from around my waist without me sinking further and gripped my palm in one hand while he took hold of my ring finger. I tensed with the pain as it felt like my bones were grinding. Clearly my flexing muscles weren't enough to bother him because he tugged on the finger and I felt it snap back into place. He continued the same motions for my other two fingers, snapping them back into place as well. His movements had hurt, but the stress of reacting to the pain was beyond me.

I flexed my hand when he released it, enjoying the movement despite the soreness. My grip was weak and shook with the effort, but I found his hand with my own and folded my fingers around his much larger palm. He seemed to approve of my actions because he pulled my hand back into the water and continued to hold it. I had never been in a healing hot spring before, but I had heard of them. Even having only been in the water for a few minutes, my body stopped shivering and my wounds seemed to calm in their fits of pain. Even my arm that I knew wasn't going to function without serious attention felt better. My energy seemed to be returning in small waves as I basked in the heat.

After a few long minutes his hand left my fixed one and found my right. His touch shot a pain up my arm to the spot where Mr. Grey Eyes' hilt had smashed into my shoulder causing me to shudder.

"I need to see the wound," he murmured apologetically. I nodded and I bit my lip as I slowly move to sit up with his help. I fumbled with the knot of my sash as I tried to untie it with my left hand. With the water having soaked it and my fingers still being weak I couldn't seem to loosen the knot. I had probably just made it worse. Sensing my struggle, Toshiro's hands slid around me and found the knot I had been messing with. He undid it easily, sliding the sash from around my waist and taking my zanpakuto with it. He let me work my arm out from my shihakusho top as far as I could, but when I couldn't go any further he helped me move my arm to free it from the fabric. I didn't bother covering myself back up, the expenditure of energy seeming unnecessary in the moment.

"How… bad?" I asked weakly as I felt his fingers gently run over the top of my reishi stitching. The hot spring's water had eased the surface pain, but I still got a jolt of searing lighting that shot down my arm at his touch.

He seemed to hesitate to answer before he replied, "It may take some time before you fully regain the use of your arm."

I let out a huff that was supposed to be a laugh and let myself sag forward in a slouch. He caught me as I started to slip off his lap and pulled me back into his body. I watched from the corner of my eye as his hand glowed with kaido as it hovered over my arm. After a moment of watching him I let my head fall back to rest against his shoulder carelessly. I hadn't wrapped my chest like I did the last time I took my top off, but I didn't have the energy to be bothered about it. The water was murky and it was just Toshiro and I in the hot spring…

I must have passed out, because the next time I woke I was still in the water but I was sitting across his lap with my right arm tucked under his. My head was resting on his still clothed chest while the rest of my body was completely submerged in the murky water. I could feel the fabric of my shihakusho top around me, draped over my shoulders like it had fallen off completely and he has replaced it. My hair was down so I assumed my hair ribbon was missing, but as I opened my eyes I saw it draped over the edge of the hot spring beside us with my smashed kanzashi lying on top of it. Slowly I shifted to look up at him and met his aquamarine gaze.

I didn't know if I should smile up at him or feel ashamed because I had gotten myself into trouble while he was gone. Again. This time it wasn't just me getting hurt though. I almost lost myself. A shudder ran through my body as I thought about what had happened and I ducked my head to hide the fear in my eyes. Toshiro's arms flexed around me, drawing me closer and holding me against his body. My right arm wouldn't move like I wanted it to, but my left hand knotted in the fabric of his shihakusho despite my weak and sore joints. I curled my legs up as I turned into him so my hip was resting on his thigh as I hid myself against him.

"Why did you leave the barrier?" he asked softly as his hand ran over my wet hair.

I chewed on my lip as I searched for a better answer than I had. Not thinking of one I let out a sigh and said, "Mio came to the Kurosaki house. I had to try and do something."

"You told me you wouldn't leave even if they tried to use your sister as bait," he said.

"I-I remember speaking to you before you left, but I only remember bits and pieces," I explained. "I'm sorry. I thought better of leaving a barrier because I knew you had set it, but then my sister showed up with Mr. Grey Eyes and that Human was alone down stairs…" I let my voice trail off. I was just making excuses.

"You are very gullible sometimes," he muttered more to himself than me. He took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "I should have known better than to leave you alone though. Uruyu is strong, but he is only Human and out of practice."

"Why did you go?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I had to," he responded automatically.

I shook my head and elaborated, "I know it's not my place to ask about your affairs as a Captain, but why were you called back by the Head Captain?"

"We can talk about that later. You need to focus on recovering," he said smoothly as his hand brushed down my neck. My eyes grew hot with tears for no good reason and I tried to bring my hand up to rub them away. My right arm didn't hurt so much as tingle, but it also did little more than twitch at my command. I frowned at it and gave up with a dejected sigh. Toshiro's hand slid under my chin and lifted so I had no choice but to meet his gaze again. His expression was worried until he saw my own gaze and his relaxed as he murmured, "It's going to be okay Ria."

"I can't feel my arm let alone hold my zanpakuto," I said, shaking my head. "It was so easy for him to do this to me, and now I am completely useless. I know I'm weak in the Human world, but it was like a game to him. He snapped my fingers one at a time with this happy look on his face like it was the best thing in the world." I lifted my left hand from his chest to look at my knuckles as I spoke. The joints weren't as swollen as I remember them feeling when he had popped them back into place, but they were still bulging and ached.

"His name is Hideo Mitsuji," Toshiro said quickly. "He was a Soul Reaper about 300 years ago before he was sentenced to execution for using his zanpakuto's abilities to control his comrades."

I blinked up at him for a long moment, unable to comprehend what he had said. "You… You know who he is?"

"Head Captain Kyoraku and Lieutenant Nanao had been doing research since they discovered what was going on. He called you and I back, but you weren't fit for the journey so Captain Abarai went with me."

"What else did he say?" I asked slowly.

"It was Head Captain Yamamoto who recommended execution to The Central 46, but Mitsuji escaped from the Soul Society before he could be detained." he said softly. "He was… also the one who killed everyone that Mitsuji had taken control over."

"What?" I blurted out before I could comprehend his words. "Why?"

"Because once Mitsuji has control over someone he doesn't lose it. He can relinquish it for a time, but he always remains inside of the people he has taken over. That is the power of his zanpakuto."

My hand came to my chest and rested over my bare sternum as my heart pounded. "He… he almost had me."

"I wouldn't have let him," Toshiro said as his hand flexed on my hip. "You were mine first. Even if he had completely taken you over, my spiritual pressure would have still chased him out."

"But Mio," I stopped myself from finishing that thought as tears welled in my eyes. My head felt fuzzy as I tried to think through what my mind was refusing to process. "Mio is completely under his control. Their reiatsu was mixed with one another to the point that I couldn't see any definition between the two."

Toshiro's hands lifted to clasp my face between his palms, forcing my wandering gaze to return to his before he said, "We may be able to save her body, but her mind is gone Ria."


	16. The Turning Point - She Who Mourns

"But… She…"

My body slouched like his words had taken all the energy from my muscles. I felt myself slip from my perch on his leg without my hold on his shihakusho and before I could catch myself I slipped under the water. Surprised and unprepared I breathed in the water before I could stop myself and panicked when I couldn't tell up from down. Arms wrapped around me, heaving me upwards and out of the water.

"Come back to yourself," Toshiro said as he pulled me through the water and back into his body, settling me on his lap with my knees resting on the bench in the water on either side of his hips. My shihakusho top had been lost somewhere in the spring when I had slipped, but I barely noticed it aside from the chill that touched my shoulders where they came above the water's surface. His hair had been flattened a bit by the force of the water when he had dunked down to grab me, the streams of water still running down his skin. "I shouldn't have said anything with you still so weak."

"There has to be a way," I said between coughs. "What if he was dead? Shouldn't his zanpakuto die with him?"

"There isn't a way, Ria. While Captain Abarai and I were in the Soul Society we looked over what they had found. In every case the soul candies that Mitsuki's zanpakuto creates act on their own free will as copies of the original. Once they had taken over they act like a parasite on the host's body and feed off their reiatsu, just like he was doing to yours. Its why you were so weak and it's also why I was able to overpower your reiatsu with mine to enter your inner world."

"There has to be a way," I repeated myself. "You saved me because you were already part of me. Maybe I'm similar enough to Mio to free her from him."

"You aren't strong enough. Even if you were fully healed you wouldn't be strong enough," Toshiro said gently. I shook my head, denying his words as he continued, "I had to push far more of my reiatsu into you to force him out. More than your body can handle alone. You don't have the strength to save her, let alone the skill."

"I can do it. I just need time to recover and-"

"Ria," he said as his hands once more clasped either side of my face in his palms. "You can't do anything to save her. She's already gone."

"N-No, there must be some way," I said, rejecting his words. But… inside I knew he was right. I had started to believe that there was nothing left in her to save since I had looked into her spiritual pressure, but I hadn't had the time to process it. Mio wasn't strong. She didn't have the training or conditioning that I had went through to be anything but another soul with a little bit of spiritual pressure. And her baby… Tears ran down my cheeks, mingling with the water dripping down my skin. "There wasn't a Research and Development program 300 years ago, maybe…" My hand covered my mouth to stop myself.

Toshiro brushed my soaking wet hair away from my face and pushed it behind my ears. My expression fell at his gentle touch as despair set in my chest. I fell into him and his arms wrapped around me as I crumbled to pieces. I had cried before, even ranted or screamed in sadness, but this was so much worse. There were no words of encouragement to be heard to keep me from thinking the worst, to keep my irrational thoughts from turning dark and depressed. I was useless. We had come here to the Human World to save my sister only to find out that she had been as good as dead the whole time.

I shook with the strain of my tears as they soaked into his Captain's Haori and shihakusho. I was normally quiet when I cried, but this time my voice came out in ragged wails and incoherent curses as I swore at myself, the world and at Hideo Mitsuji. Toshiro held me through it all, his hand rubbing circles into my bare back while his other had woven into my hair. He didn't say anything, but rested his cheek against my temple like he wanted to but didn't have the words. I cried and cried until I felt like everything inside of me had dried up leaving only the anger I felt towards myself for being so pathetic. If I had just known what was happening in the kitchen… I could have saved her.

"Why…" I sat up slowly, pulling myself away from him so I could see his face. "Why do you care for someone like me? All I do is cause you trouble and make you worry. I cry all the time, you have to waste your time healing me, protecting me, saving me from my own stupidity-"

"Ria, stop," he gently commanded as his hand slid down from my hair to rest at the side of my neck. "I know it hurts, but there is no reason to be self-destructive."

"I'm not being self-destructive," I objected. "Why do you bother with someone like me? I am not worthy of you. You are a captain and someone with so much more life experience. I am just a little nobody that causes so many issues."

"What's happening is not your fault."

"You don't understand," I continued despite his words. "If you had just let me die during my first turning point-"

"Enough, Ria," he said roughly as he pushed away from the edge of the hot spring to fully sit up. His mouth covered mine, silencing me with a kiss that had my words trapped in my throat. I tried to pull away to continue, but his hand slipped to the back of my neck and kept me from moving. He didn't bother being gentle as he forcefully kissed me into silence, and when his tongue brushed over my bottom lip I did the only thing that I could and opened for him. He held me trapped against him as he kissed my thoughts away and I was breathing hard against his mouth. He pulled back enough to look down at me, his hand caressing my neck tenderly. I stared back at him as my mind drew blank except for thoughts of him. We watched each other for a long moment before I couldn't take it anymore and closed the distance between us, capturing his mouth with my own.

I surrendered myself to the feel of him pressed against my naked chest, his hand as it slid up and knotted in my hair to control my head, his other as it slid over the bottoms of my shihakusho to grip my butt and pull me harder against him. I ground my hips into his as desire welled inside me. I needed him, and I needed him now. He stood in the water, his grip on my butt keeping me pressed to him as I flexed my thighs to help hold myself up and wrapped my left arm over his shoulders to support my weight. The air was like ice compared to the water of the hot spring, making my body shiver and my core seem so much hotter with need.

He moved through the water and I felt his steps as he climbed out of the hot spring. Cool rock hit my back as he pressed me into the smooth walls of the cavern. His hips ground into me as he pinned me in place, drawing small noises from my throat. No longer needing to support my weight, his hand slid from my butt, over my hip, up my bare side and to my elbow. He drew my arm away from his shoulders until he could hold my hand and pinned it to the wall beside my head. I flexed my legs, drawing myself higher on his body so I could offer him more of my mouth. He groaned and his hand left my hair, trailing down my shoulder to hesitate above my breasts before he changed directions and let his hand slip behind me.

His lips parted from mine to kiss my chin and trail a line of kissed up my jaw, temple and to the center of my forehead. His breathing was labored as he slowly slid down the wall, my body moving with his until he was kneeling and I was supported by his folded legs. I lifted my head to capture his lips with my own, but where I was eager and wanting he was sweet and gentle. The change made me open my eyes to see his soft gaze focused on me.

"We can't Ria," he murmured. "Not like this."

My heart sank at his words and I felt tears sting my eyes once more. He… was rejecting me. He didn't want me after all…

"Ria," he cooed my name. "I could never forgive myself if I took advantage of you in such a way. I will be anything that you need me to be, but I will not misuse your grief."

"Why?" I asked in a whisper. "Why do you care for me?"

He hesitantly lifted my right hand with his own and opened my palm to press it against his bare chest where his shihakusho had fallen open to expose a triangle of skin. He held my hand there like I could not as he said, "You fill a hole in my heart that I have been ignoring for a very long time. I didn't know how much it pained me until it hurt no longer, but now that I am whole I refuse to let you go. It may be selfish but," he released my left hand and cupped my cheek. "You are mine, and I am willing to do anything to keep you that way."

I blinked up at him, my eyes wide with surprise. I covered his hand on my cheek with my own as I asked, "Are you sure that you want someone like me?"

"Yes," he said as he leaned closer to me so our noses were only an inch apart. "I made up my mind the first time you said my name."

The memory came to me, chasing out the doubt in my heart. It seemed like so long ago that he was Captain Hitsugaya to me. Toshiro… Toshiro fit him so much better. The corner of my lips turned up in a small smile as I whispered, "Then I am yours."

He kissed me, his touch soft and teasing against my lips. I shivered as the air in the room shifted and raised goose bumps across my skin. He pulled back just enough to look down at me with a quirked brow.

"Cold?"

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Don't be," he replied as he shifted, briefly releasing me to remove his Captain's Haori. He pulled it around and over my shoulders before his arms surrounded me once more. The fabric was cold against my skin, making me shudder as I pulled it around my body, not bothering to try and get my arms through the sleeves. His spiritual pressure dulled and his body abruptly became warm to the touch, like he had changed from winter to summer from one moment to the next. I hadn't noticed how cold I was until I relaxed into him, his body heat radiating though the fabric between us. The air in the room became humid with the steam ghosting off the hot spring and I felt the air around us grow almost uncomfortably warm. Between the heat from his body and the heat that seemed to stick to my skin I suddenly felt light headed and little dizzy.

"Too much," I mumbled as I closed my eyes and shook my head.

"Its my reiatsu inside you making it uncomfortable," he murmured as his hand traced down my cheek. "You should probably go back in the hot spring, but how is your body feeling?"

I ran through a mental check list of my body, thinking about the injuries I had sustained. "I can't feel my right arm, my left hand is sore and swollen and…" I let my words trail off as I thought about why my eyes felt so tired. I shook my head as I said, "I'm fine."

"That must be your default answer," he murmured as his hand slipped under my butt before he moved to stand. I wasn't ready for his sudden movement, but he held me too him without any assistance as he moved towards a heavy metal door on the side of the room.

"I can walk, you don't have to carry me like this," I said as I flexed my thighs and leaned into him to better balance myself in his arms. My muscles shook with the effort unlike before, my strength no longer fueled by adrenaline.

"And if I want to carry you?" he said as he shifted my weight to one arm and used his other to pull open the door. The slightly shifted position put me a little to the side, and I could see the hilt of my zanpakuto poking up from behind his shoulder. I hadn't noticed it earlier, but he had strapped her across his back. My sash was draped over his shoulder and tied low on his chest, her blade hanging lower than his Hyorinmaru because of the way I had her fastened. I had the urge to reach out to her, but I startled at the sound of the latch as I realized that we were leaving the privacy of the cavern.

"S-Shouldn't I get the rest of my uniform out of the hot spring?" I asked nervously as I glanced over his shoulder to the steaming water we were leaving behind.

"I'll get it for you later," he said dismissing my words. Cool air rushed into the room from the stair case beyond making me huddle against him to hide myself. "Besides, I kind of like you this way."

I smiled into his shihakusho at his teasing words as he stepped through the doorway and closed it behind him. His hand returned to my back as he began moving up the stairs and I mumbled, "Being carried this way makes me feel like such a child."

He paused and looked down at me, his gaze considering and thoughtful. His hands shifted to my hips and he lowered me so I could stand, making sure to keep me upright as I found my footing on the step above his. I started to ask him why he had put me down, but I stopped at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs

"Captain Hitsugaya?" A familiar female voice asked. "I thought you two would be down there longer."

A blush lit my cheeks as I double checked his haori as it hung off my shoulders. I only had my left hand to keep it closed so I looked awkward, but I was covered. He was just so much bigger than I was that it was like swimming in fabric. I turned enough so that I could look over my shoulder up to Rukia as she continued down the steps to us.

"Hey Ria," she said as she took a few more steps down. I turned fully just before her arms captured me in an unexpected hug that I couldn't return. "I'm glad that you are okay. You had everyone so worried."

"I'm sorry," I mumbled into her shoulder. I was normally an inch or two taller, but with her standing on the step above me it put my nose at her shoulder level. She released me after a moment, but her hands remained on my shoulders as she pulled back and looked me up and down.

"Why are you in Toshiro's haori?"

"I fell in the water and lost my top in the hot spring," I said quickly as the blush that had lit my cheeks darkened.

"How on earth…" her gaze darted past me as she half shouted, "Toshiro! Were you taking advantage-"

"No," I quickly interrupted her. "My injuries were…" I let my words trail off as my thoughts went to my arm. Mostly numb besides the slight tingling sensations, it hung uselessly at my side under the haori. Rukia let her hands drop from my shoulders as she let out a small sigh.

"How is your arm?" she asked in a soft voice.

"I can't feel or move it," I replied as I dropped my gaze. She didn't say anything for a long moment, letting the silence ring in the air. Abruptly she turned and starting moving back up the stairs.

"Come on, let's get you something to eat."

My stomach growled at her words, telling me just how hungry I was. I shook my head and followed her up the stairs.

"Why does everyone assume I'm up to no good?" Toshiro grumbled to himself as he too followed us up.

Once we were upstairs I entered my gigai right away to hide from everyone else. I was fully clothed in my gigai, my Human attire far less embarrassing than running around in Toshiro's haori. Rangiku had done an excellent job finding me an outfit that wasn't horribly revealing. The shirt was still thin, but it didn't cling to my body like my other outfit had. This one was all about the perfect fit. The white shirt had a semi deep neck line and straps as thin as my hair ties, but my chest and a good portion of my shoulders were covered by a turquoise scarf that didn't seem to serve any purpose besides being an accessory. The pants seemed to be real pants instead of skin tight fabric, fitting me like a perfect glove and ending just above my ankles so the flat sandals that were sitting at the door would show.

I now sat at the chabudai table in the dining room, trying my best to eat slowly even though my stomach wanted me to shovel food down like dirt. Whoever had been nice enough to make enough food for three, all for me, deserved a hug.

The doorway leading to the hallway slid open and Rukia stepped into the room. She shut the door behind her before walking over to the table and sitting down on the side to my right.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

"Much," I mumbled as I covered my full mouth to talk. How horrible my manners were…

"I'm glad," she said with a smile. "There's something I need to discuss with you."

I blinked at her for a moment before I set my utensils down and swallowed what I had been chewing. I gave her my full attention, meeting her gaze steadily and turning my body to face her.

"The next time we encounter Mio, what do you want us to do?" She asked softly.

"What do you mean?"

She seemed to pause for a moment as she thought over her words. "Did Captain Hitsugaya explain to you what-"

"Yes," I interrupted her, not wanting to hear it said again. "I… I understand what Hideo Mitsuji's zanpakuto does."

"I want to know what you want us to do the next time we encounter her. There are a few things that we can do, though none of our options will free her. At least, not right away."

"Not right away?"

She licked her lips, almost as a nervous gesture, before she said, "Captain Kurotsuchi was made aware of the situation by the Head Captain. He wants to capture the people who have been taken over by Mitsuji's zanpakuto and study them. He thinks that given enough time, he could figure out how to reverse the effects. The only problem is… Well…"

"She isn't a soul reaper?" I tried to provide.

"Sort of. Her spiritual pressure isn't strong enough to not physically suffer from the strain of his most likely treatments," she said delicately.

"You mean she would lose her baby," I said flatly.

"There is a good chance that she wouldn't survive the treatment. Our other option is to keep her contained until the baby comes to term, but," she hesitated and started to reach out to take my hand but drew back. She took in a deep breath like steeling herself and said, "the strain of doing so will leave her body too weak to survive whatever sort of process is required to free her mind. It would take time…" She kept talking, but my attention fizzled out. She was asking me to make a decision that I could never make. My sister… Her baby…

"You're asking me to choose between my sister's life… or the life of her child?" I asked slowly, interrupting whatever she had been saying.

"Not exactly, but we need- "

"Daichi should be the one to make a decision like that," I quickly said.

She nodded in understanding as she said, "I would agree, but he is still unconscious due to the injuries that he sustained at the manor. But it's not as bad as-"

"I can't," I said as I shook my head. "I can't make a decision like that. I won't."

"Wait Ria," Rukia started to reach out to me once more. I shot to my feet, avoiding her touch as I backed away.

"I won't make a decision that could kill my sister or her child. I won't," I rejected as I moved towards the door. I left the room with Rukia calling after me, moving quickly down the hallway to the entrance of the shop. I slipped on my sandals and brushed past the shop owner and the female attendant as I headed for the door. I left them staring after me as tried to be calm and slide the door closed softly. I failed and ended up slamming it behind me as I ran across the parking lot and started down the sidewalk.

I ran for only a block or two before I stopped myself. I… I couldn't really go anywhere. Toshiro had my zanpakuto, and in my gigai I wasn't sure if I could flash step or not. If I went too far away I would just be asking to get killed. At least they couldn't try to take me over again with Toshiro's reiatsu so strongly mixed with my own… I let out a sigh and pulled my right arm up so I was cradling the limp limb against my stomach. Even in my gigai it was a useless appendage.

"This is so messed up," I grumbled to myself as I started walking, turning myself to go around the block. I walked until I reached the end of the block and turned, following the road until I had passed the back of the shop and was another block away before I turned again. The midday summer sun beat down on me, making sweat slick my skin and my head pound from the heat that disagreed with Toshiro's wintery reiatsu inside me. I walked circles around the shop and the blocks that surrounded it as I tried to think about the situation. But… what was there to think about? I couldn't choose for my sister. I knew what she would want. She would want her baby to survive, where as I would want her to survive. She could always try again for a baby if she were to live… but they had been trying to have a baby for years now. If I ruined her only chance at a child she would forgive me, but…

I stopped at the back of the shop and gazed at the wall as I tried to feel who was inside. Toshiro's spiritual pressure inside me made it difficult to sense much else, but I could still feel most of the people. Rukia, Captain Sui Feng, Rangiku, the other Soul Reapers that had traveled here with us, the shop keeper, and of course Toshiro. Was this really the best thing that we could come up with?

The door at the back of the shop creaked open and I watched as my zanpakuto stepped outside. Every inch of her skin was black like polished onyx, making her teal eyes pop with brilliant color as she slowly stepped towards me. Red patterns were painted over her skin, looking like bloody trails running down her skin. Red ribbons were laced through her black hair, accenting the elegant shimada that held her hair up ornamentally. Her kimono was pure white, but the layers underneath shown with an almost grey tone to the white, making her clothing look depressed and lacking in life. Her armor was white instead gold and trimmed in a deep red like the lines that ran down her skin. She moved towards me with our sword in her hands, the blade bare and the sheath nowhere to be seen.

"Tankyu no Unmei?" I said her name quizzically when she stopped before me. She must have had a pair of geta on underneath her kimono because she loomed over me by several inches instead of just a little. She gazed down at me for a long, silent moment before she lifted a finger and pressed it to my forehead.

"She Who Kills," she said softly just before I felt my gigai fall at my feet. I hadn't moved nor felt myself being pushed from my gigai, so it startled me and I stepped back. My shihakusho and Toshiro's haori were dry around my body as I looked down at myself to secure the edges of the white fabric before the haori fell off. I blinked down at my gigai for a long moment before my gaze lifted to meet my zanpakuto's once more.

"Who do I kill?" I asked slowly, not sure if I wanted an answer.

"The one who deserves to die," she answered as she held out the hilt of our sword for me to take.

"Just him?"

"At the moment," she answered as she gestured down to our sword.

I held her gaze for a long moment, watching her blank expression for some hint about the future. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and released my hold on Toshiro's haori. It fell from my shoulders as I reached out and took our sword.

"Maebure no Shukufuku."

Power surged through me as my shikai activated. I pulled the reishi in the air to my body, forming my shihakusho top minus the sleeve before I set to making my armor. In my mind, I reached out to where I had fought with Hideo Mitsuji to find the reishi that I had sunk into the ground still there. I pulled it to me, seeing everything that the reishi passed by until it came to my body. I formed my armor, the plates finding their places on my body like they had always belonged there and the chains that held them in place highlighting my body in golden accents.

I looked down to my right hand as the arm guard finished forming and lifted the plates covering my hand and fingers with my mind's eye. My hand moved as if it were my muscles moving them, the layering of the plates not allowing my fingers to bend too far in the wrong direction. I moved my arm, controlling my hand enough to take my sword from my left. I dropped it during the exchange and lost my shikai in the process. I knelt and scooped it off the ground, activating my shikai once more with a whisper. My armor formed almost instantly with the reishi still hovering around my body. I tried again, but once more failed when the sword slipped from my grasp. I frowned as I picked it up once more, holding it by its handguard as I guided my limp right hand into the handguard. I called out my shikai once more, but this time as my armor was forming I forced it to form into the hand guard of hilt, the metal of my armor wrapping into the hand guard until my right hand was fused to the hilt by my armor.

Satisfied I stood back up, lifting Toshiro's haori with my now free left hand and folding it over my arm. I looked up to Tankyu no Unmei where she was still standing between me and the back of the shop.

"I don't know if this is something that I can do on my own," I admitted to her.

"You aren't alone," she murmured. "If you call, I will be there. If you ask, others will be there. If you run to danger, they will follow." She reached out to me, her hand caressing my cheek and saying just before she vanished, "You will never be alone."

Tears threatened to well in my eyes at her words. I had never thought of myself as alone before. Even when I was lonely I always had somewhere to go that I would be surrounded by family, but I had been on my own for a long time. Ever since I became a Soul Reaper I had been on my own. I wasn't like everyone else, but it never really bothered me. I just did my own thing and avoided people. It worked for me… but now I didn't have to.

I shook off the urge to cry, motivating myself to move. I started to turn away from the shop and paused. I frowned at myself before I turned back to the shop and walked towards the back door leading inside and pulled it open. I stopped as I was about to step inside when I saw Toshiro leaning against the wall. His aquamarine gaze pinned me where I was for a moment before I remembered my motivations. My sash was still across his chest, telling me that the sheath for my zanpakuto was still hanging below his. I held out his haori for him to take, but he didn't move. He just watched me for a long moment…

"I thought you were going to do something rash," he murmured.

"I thought that I might as well," I replied as I stepped into the shop, letting the door close behind me.

"Today is another turning point for you," he stated.

"Yes, that is why my name has changed several times today," I said hesitantly. "I take it my zanpakuto said something."

He nodded before saying, "I'm sorry for what is happening to your sister."

"It's not your fault," I said with a small shake of my head. "Its just…" I took in deep breath and let it out in a huff as I dropped my gaze. I searched the ground for something to say, but when I didn't find it I met his gaze once more. He was watching me with a blank expression, waiting for me to say something. My lips threatened to pull into a frown, the corners dipping as I fought it off. I stepped into him, pressing my forehead to his chest to hide my expression.

"This is so messed up," I finally said. "I don't know what to do. If my sister could make a choice-"

"You don't have to," he interrupted me.

I slowly lifted my head to meet his gaze. He was always so steady when I was not. His hand lifted and ghosted across my forehead and behind my ear, brushing my hair back from my face. "Captain Abarai wanted to be the one to talk to you about Captain Kurotsuchi's proposal. She has had a child before and thought it best that she were the one to discuss the situation."

"I didn't really give her a chance. I couldn't listen to her… not after what you said in the hot spring," I admitted as I cast my gaze to the side. Toshiro's hand slid under my jaw and gently coaxed me to lift my face so I could look up at him. He kissed me, the gentle press of his lips drawing a small sigh from me as I lost track of my thoughts.

"Don't worry," he murmured against my lips. "Captain Kurotsuchi will figure something out."

"How?" I asked, my voice sounding small and helpless as my chest tightened. I started to say more, but he silenced me with another kiss. After a moment, he pulled back enough to gaze down at me as his thumb caressed my cheek. His eyes seemed to wander over my face, taking in everything that my features had to offer.

"I personally don't prefer the man. He's egotistical, ostentatious, vexatious, and generally unpleasant to deal with. But, he is a scientific genius." His face seemed to shut down for a moment, but he seemed to catch himself and shook his head. "Thirty years ago, during the battle against Ywach and his Quincy, Rangiku and I were for all intents and purposes killed and turned into tools for the enemy. It was Captain Kurotsuchi that reversed the effects of what had been done, though it was at great cost." He paused for a moment, as if considering his words before he continued, "He returned Rangiku and I from what should have been death. He can do the same for Mio, if given enough time."

"But she's not like you, or even I," I said slowly. "We are stronger than normal souls. Even me, fragile and easily broken by comparison to you, am metal to her porcelain."

"He can figure it out," he cooed. "He is stubborn and full of himself, but if played to his ego he will find a way to save her just to prove that he can. It may just take time."

I bit my lip as I thought over his words. "A-Are you just trying to make me feel better? Or do you really believe that?"

"I wouldn't lie to you," he said with a small huff of a laugh.

"That's not what I meant," I quickly said.

"I know," he murmured before he kissed me again. "I don't mean to get your hopes but, but it may not be as dismal as you thought."

"It doesn't help that things keep changing. First, she's as good as dead, then I can save her or her baby, now this…"

"I shouldn't have said anything earlier," he said softly. "I should have waited, but instead I caused you unneeded stress."

I shook my head and dropped my gaze to his chest. "I prefer that you are honest with me. Even if it's… painful."

His arms started to wrap around me, but I placed my hand on his chest to stop him. I lifted my gaze back up to meet his questioning one.

"She Who Kills," I said darkly, almost surprising myself. "Either they are coming to us, or we need to go to them. Either way, something is going to happen soon."

"Are you feeling up to it?" He asked me as concern narrowed his eyes. "You aren't even close to being recovered."

"I don't really have a choice. This is my fate."


	17. The Turning Point - She Who Kills

It only took half an hour to have everyone assembled and ready to move. Toshiro hadn't wanted to let me go, but without the ability to follow my markers they would have been forced to wait for Mitsuji's people to attack when they were at an advantage. It was decided that they would follow my markers, and they would wait to attack if Hideo Mitsuji didn't show himself right away. I was to be the bait to lure him out of hiding, left alone until either he showed up or I needed assistance. Once he did show up, everyone would attack and I would be shielded. I was the target in this scenario, the one who was most likely to be attacked at any opportunity when the fighting started. Because of this, I was supposed to be stuck behind a barrier while Mitsuji's remaining puppets were engaged.

According to Captain Sui Feng, Mitsuji had taken over two Arrancar, one being the Numeros that Toshiro and I had encountered and the other being the avian like female. They were hesitant to kill the Numeros because they knew that he belonged to one of the former Espada. The relationship they had with this guy named Grimmjow was baffling to me. Why they would be concerned about killing a Hollow… I just didn't get it, and no one bothered explaining. Other than the Arrancars there were three Soul Reapers including Takeshi Nakai and several lower Hollows. He had amassed a small army over the years, but Captain Sui Feng and the lieutenants had decimated most of the hollows earlier today while I had been engaged with Hideo Mitsuji and Mio.

We now stood at the back of the store as everyone waited for me to move. I hadn't deactivated my shikai the entire time, instead I kept it running and kept my attention mostly on my mind's eye. I had been subtly collecting reishi for the past half hour and forming clear, condensed plates that I laced into my shihakusho. It made my clothes heavy, but I held the weight up with my mind's eye so I could move without being hindered. The area was now void of any free floating reishi, but I fully intended to gather more as we followed my markers. I didn't have the power that I usually did, but as I gathered more reishi I seemed to get stronger… or, at least I felt that way. I had no intention of staying in whatever barrier was set for me, but I wasn't going to tell them that. I would have enough reishi by the time we got there to create my own box that I could manipulate freely.

"Ria," Toshiro said as he came up to my side. "Whenever you're ready."

I nodded as I turned my head to gaze up at him. He had donned his haori and his face was tense with his usual annoyed expression, but I could see the strain of worry that pinched his eyes. I didn't reach out to him to try and sooth the tension in his eyes. I wanted to, but anything that I could say would be a lie. My name wasn't She Who Stays Safe, it was She Who Kills.

I opened my mind's eye until I was only vaguely focusing on my body. I knew my eyes had turned teal like my zanpakuto's as I looked through my mind's eye at the area around me. I could sense the seven soul reapers that were standing around me, the three bodies of the former Soul Reapers inside the shop, and the marker that stuck to the building across the street. The marker was almost invisible on the wall, making no physical difference from the substance that composed most of the Human world. Only someone who could see reishi like me would have ever been able to see them.

I pulled the reishi that composed the marker to me, turning it into another clear plate on my shihakusho before I turned and took off in a flash step towards the next. The spiritual pressures of everyone who was to be following me abruptly vanished as they suppressed themselves, but I still felt them following a good distance behind me with my mind's eye seeing the reishi that composed them. They were leaving me the space that I needed to allow them to not have to stop while I paused for just a moment at each marker to collect the reishi that composed them and adding to my shihakusho. Well, that was what I was using the extra space for. Really, they wanted me to appear to be alone which was why they had suppressed their spirit pressures and left so much distance between us.

At each marker, I paused only for long as it took for me to collect the reishi in the area before moving on. When I had been tracking the Arrancar it hadn't felt like such a great distance was traveled, but with my movements being so much slower it felt like miles instead of blocks. Despite being healed and taking in some much needed food, my body was still exhausted from everything that had happened today. It was a strain to go as fast as I was, but where my body was struggling my spiritual pressure was not.

I could feel my zanpakuto's presence in the back of my mind like I had never felt her before. Where I would normally get distracted or lose focus from exhaustion she pushed me in the right direction. She felt like a guiding hand, helping me to keep the reishi I had woven into my armor from weighing me down and directing what I was collecting faster that I could have alone. Toshiro's spiritual pressure inside me had been too much at first and made the heat unbearable, now it was a cooling presence in my chest. If I wasn't running around in the summer sun I was pretty sure I would have been in trouble being so far from him, but now the hot and humid air brushed past me almost unnoticed, making it easier to breathe and think.

I paused longer than I needed to after several markers as something tickled the back of my mind. I turned as I focused more towards my vision and glanced around at the grassy fields to my left, then to the fences on my right that surrounded painted rectangles that were split by nets. I was in some sort of sporting area in the city, my marker having been attached to the side of some sort of metal goal like structure.

When I couldn't see anything suspicious with my naked eye I turned my attention fully to my mind's eye. Pushing my senses out I felt Tankyu no Unmei guide my mind as she searched with our power. I found Toshiro first, drawn be his familiar feeling as he stopped a good distance away in the sky. The others appeared as they dropped from their flash steps near him, their bodies lighting up in my head. My zanpakuto ushered my attention away from them, casting our senses across the area. A sharp pain lit in my head as I felt the strain of stretching my mind to far out. I pressed my palm to my forehead and rubbed at my brow to try and sooth the pain as I continued searching.

Something brushed against my senses and I zoned in on it. I realized too late that it was someone moving in a flash step towards me, and I barely lifted my sword in time to block the vertical strike that came down on me. Unprepared for the force of the hit, I was taken to one knee as my sword grinded against the blade of another. I completely dropped my mind's eye so I could gaze up at Takeshi Nakai as his grey eyes grinned down at me. I shoved him back with the force of my mind's eye controlling my movements. It made him stumble with my unexpected strength and he put several yards between us.

"Miss Yamamoto," he said as he reached up to his face mask and pulled it down to reveal his toothy grin. "I was expecting you to be one of us."

"I guess I was stronger than you thought," I said smartly as I moved to stand on both feet. I knew that I would be on my own until Hideo Mitsuji showed up or I actually needed help. They wanted to draw him out, and the best way to do that would be to leave me alone as long as possible…

He scoffed and shook his head dramatically before he said, "More like your Captain saved you. You absolutely reek of his spiritual pressure. You are such a fool for coming out here alone."

Good… They hadn't been watching the shop otherwise they would have known that we all left together. "I want to see my sister," I demanded flatly.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he quirked his head to the side. "There isn't much of her left to see."

"I want to see my sister," I said again, ignoring his words.

"You had three days to send your entourage home," he started as he lifted three fingers. "But, we didn't all agree. Are you sure you want to see her, missing bits and all?"

"… I swear, if you hurt her I will make you suffer before I kill you." My voice came out deeper than normal as I spoke. I knew he had to be baiting me, but I couldn't help myself… I let my vision slip away as I turned fully to my mind's eye. "Where is he? Where is Hideo Mitsuji?"

"Oh, you are so cute," he said as he covered his mouth in mock humor. "So demanding. You even learned our name!"

"Where is he?" I demanded as I pulled the clear reishi plates from my shihakusho. They dispersed around me, expanding from their condensed form into clear bits that swirled around me as if caught in a small storm.

"Bakudo #61, Rikujokoro," Takeshi called out as he pointed two fingers at me.

I turned the reishi into clear walls around my body, encasing myself in a clear box just before the six beams of light formed. Instead of closing around me they hit the reishi walls that I had created and stopped. I removed the top of my box with a thought and jumped up as I let the walls disintegrate. The beams of light from his bakudo slammed together where I had been and vanished with the lack of body to latch onto. I landed on the ground a bit further away from him than I had been and pulled the reishi back around my body. My head was pounding and body was getting tired from the strain of focusing, but I tried my best not to show it by standing with a neutral posture and letting my face relax as I drew away from my body to put all my attention on my mind's eye.

"Learned a few new tricks in such a short amount of time?"

"Not exactly," I said. "You are predictable. Having used Rikujokoro on me several times before, I figured you would try again. It took a higher kido than Rikujokoro to break my walls, so I took a chance and assumed it wouldn't be able to pierce through."

"Risky," he tried to tease me.

I pulled the reishi around me back into a box, securing myself inside. I reinforced it with several of the plates that armored my thighs, thickening the walls as much as I could to strengthen them. Takeshi sneered at me as he took several steps towards me, twirling his sword between his fingers like a baton. He turned as he reached my walls and began walking circles around me. I followed him with my mind's eye, my body never moving to show that I was watching him. He started humming a song as his sword's blade tapped against my wall in time.

"I wonder," he mused aloud. "Will you eventually run out of air in there? Do I just have to wait you out until you have to break it to breathe?"

"I can stay in here all day. Get Hideo Mitsuji and my sister and I will come out."

He went back to humming as he circled me a few more times. Finally he stopped in front of me and his hand lifted to caress my wall. "You are brave for such a weakling, or just very stupid."

I shifted back to my body and gazed at him with cold eyes and said nothing. He pressed his forehead to my wall, his face warping with the pressure it made on his skin and making his aged face wrinkle. He held my gaze for several moments before he let out a sigh and stepped back. "You are so boring," he grumbled just before he vanished with a flash step.

I waited for a moment before I let myself relax. I pressed my hand to my head, trying to add pressure that would ease the pain in my head.

'Why does it hurt so bad?' I asked my zanpakuto.

'We are straining our bond by my working so closely with you,' she answered. 'Doing this is something you are not ready for.'

'Then why are you allowing it?'

'You are my Herald,' she answered simply. 'Today of all days, you need my power to succeed. I won't allow our bond to be so broken as before, but this I can repair once we have done what we need to do.'

'Thank you,' I thought softly to her.

She didn't reply to me, but I felt her touch on my mind as the pain in my head eased slightly. I let myself step back until my back subtly pressed into the wall to keep myself from falling over as I slipped almost completely into my mind's eye. I spread my senses as far as I could and gathered the sparse bits of reishi in the area. I slipped what I could gather into the ground in the field so I could see further away with my mind's eye. I would pull it to me once the fighting started, but for now it would give me a head's up when they arrived.

I was only waiting for a few minutes before I felt the first body cross into my range. I knew it was Hideo Mitsuji, but I kept my focus on feeling the bodies that followed him as I counted them in my head. Other than Mitsuji, they weren't bothering to suppress themselves so I could clearly feel Mio's tainted spiritual pressure being carried by Takeshi Nakai. The arrancars were with them, followed by two unfamiliar spiritual pressures and several hollows. They must have been the other soul reapers that had been mentioned earlier.

Feeling Mitsuji moving closer towards me I pulled myself back to my body so I could stand straight and drop my hand before he reached me. I blinked several times to clear the blurry vision that had resulted from my eyes being open without blinking for so long. As my vision cleared I turned my gaze towards where I had felt them coming from. Mitsuji emerged from his flash step still in motion. His sword was in hand as he slammed into my box, driving his sword as hard as he could into it. I felt his blade bite into the reishi, but it didn't penetrate more than an inch before the force of his movement was completely halted. Behind him the arrancars, Takeshi Nakai carrying Mio, and two Soul Reapers that I had never seen before appeared as they halted in the grass.

"How disappointing," he mused to himself as he looked down to where his sword had been stopped by my box. "I was expecting to cut right through with how weak you feel."

"You had to weaken my armor with multiple hits before you could break it. My walls are far thicker," I sneered at him as I met his crazy grey gaze. He was dressed the same way he had been when I had last encountered him. Grey pants with a maroon top, the chain around his neck still decorated with his zanpakuto's soul candies. He flicked his head to whip his rich brown hair to the side as his grey eyes narrowed down at me smugly.

"It'll break eventually," he said smoothly as he caressed his hand over where his blade had bit in. "Just like you."

I started to say something in reply, but almost faster than I could track Captain Sui Feng appeared in the middle of Mitsuji's people. She spun with a kick that connected with Takeshi's arm and forced him to drop my sister to the ground before sending him rolling across the grass. She vanished almost as quickly as she had appeared before reappearing beside Takeshi's body. He jumped up, rebounding from her hit before he lashed out with his own flurry of strikes. She parried them easily, but her returning strikes were weary. She was trying to subdue him, not kill him, which made her task immensely more difficult.

"You aren't alone after all!" Mitsuji cheered as he turned, giving me his back, so he could watch as Ayasegawa and Rangiku clashed with the two unknown Soul Reapers, forcing them away as their zanpakuto rang with parried hits.

"Juhaku!" Ruika called out, surprising me as her spiritual pressure seemed to explode behind me. I turned to watch as her blade bit into the ground and ice shot across the grass towards the female Arrancar. Unprepared for the attack, she was caught off guard and the ice coated her feet. She slashed at the ice breaking free one foot, but as she freed the one the ice on the other spread up her leg and encased all the way up to her mid-thigh. She continued to struggle against the encroaching ice, but for every shard she broke free from more would grow to cover her body.

The Numeros backed away from her, putting distance between him and the ice before the female Arrancar was completely swallowed up. Rukia pulled her blade from the ground and launched forward in a flash step. Her blade pierced the ice she had trapped the Arrancar in, slicing through the solid mask that covered her face. The ice cracked with the impact, and with it the Arrancar's body seemed to dissipate and vanish into the air. I felt the transition in my mind's eye as the Arrancar died and her body became reishi. It was disturbing and such a foreign sight to see in my mind's eye as her body literally turned into particles of reishi that distributed throughout the area. It made the area seem saturated with reishi, and even though it seemed wrong to do I pulled the reishi into the ground, reinforcing my ability to see the area with my mind's eye.

"What the fuck now," the Numeros growled as he drew his sword and dropped into an offensive stance.

"Luien Baras," Rukia spat his name as she stood straight and pointed her zanpakuto towards him. "Grimmjow is gonna be pissed when he finds out how weak you are. Dominated by a Soul Reaper that wasn't even a Lieutenant. How pathetic."

I tried to keep the surprise off my face at her words. I had never heard her goad someone like that before…

The Numeros didn't bother giving her a reply, instead he flipped his short sword over in his hand so the blade was protruding from the outside of his hand before he pushed off the ground and ran at her. Flames scorched the ground where his feet connected with the grass and the air seemed to waver around him as heat radiated off his body. They clashed in an eruption of steam as their opposing reiatsu came in contact with one another. Rukia fended him off with slash of ice, but he retaliated with a geyser of flames that shot from his palm. She dodged back and he followed her as she moved across the grassy field. Flaming explosions followed them as she continued to lead him away, the Arrancar never noticing that she was intentionally putting distance between him and Hideo Mitsuji.

"Guncho Tsurara!"

My breath caught in my throat as I felt Toshiro's spiritual pressure flare, drawing with it the part of him inside me and causing my chest to ache with a sudden panging chill. Shards of ice impaled the area around me, clashing and shattering against my walls while piercing the ground that Mitsuji had been standing on only a moment ago. Mitsuji's geta slid across the grass a few meters away as he landed from a jump I hadn't seen him make, his zanpakuto's blade grinding into the ground as he used it to help stop his movements.

Toshiro descended to the ground, his feet touching down just in front of my box. Wings of ice protruded from his back, moving around him as if they were part of his body. The ice was tinted cooled shades ranging from a nearly clear teal to a solid crystalline aquamarine that closely resembled the color of his eyes. Scale like textures on the surface of the wings refracted the light, casting sparkling dots of light across the ground. He slowly turned, his wing folding down so he could look back at me over his shoulder. Ice had formed in his hair like a jagged crown of shards that trailed down his temple and formed into icy fins that covered his ears. The sash that held his sheath to his back had become plates of ice that wove over his haori like armor while more ice wove over his exposed skin like scales.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice deep and filled with power.

"Yes," was about all I could manage to say, my breath chilling my throat and mouth as it came out. I had never seen his bankai before. It was… amazing. I had never seen something so… wow. I couldn't tell if it was the push of his power inside me or just my own awe, but it felt hard to breathe in his presence.

"I knew I was getting too lucky to have Ria all to myself," Mitsuji commented in an annoyed tone.

Toshiro's gaze flicked away from me as he turned back to face him. A barrier erected around me and my box, sealing me inside of its golden glow. I dropped my reishi box and stepped forward to press my palm to the barrier's wall. I had known he was going to do it, but as I felt the barrier's power I tried to hide the surprise that I was feeling. I had been expecting him to place a barrier that I couldn't take down, but instead he had used a kyomon barrier and he had left the bottom open instead of sealing it closed just under the ground's level. I stared at his back in wonder. He was trusting me to stay inside his barrier, but he was leaving me the ability to still use my shikai.

"Hideo Mitsuji, former member of Squad 8. You were sentenced to execution for your crimes against your comrades 300 years ago," Toshiro said as he flicked his zanpakuto out to his side. "Do you have any last words before I kill you?"

"Oh, I'm so intimidated," Mitsuji mocked as he pretended to squirm. His spiritual pressure flared with his words, the dark and fearsome presence sliding over me in such a familiar caress. The memory of the darkness burning along my skin forced a shudder from my body and I stepped back instinctually.

"You should be," Toshiro voice rumbled as he turned his blade. He shot across the grass, closing the distance between him and Mitsuji so fast that the blur his body made looked like a long tail following him. Their zanpakuto clashed, the sharp sound echoed by a cackling peel of laughter from Mitsuji as his feet slid across the grass with the force of Toshiro's movements.

The distance they had moved drew my attention to Mio's unmoving body that was still lying only a few yards away from them. I knew Toshiro would was aware and would avoid anything that would possibly hurt her, but Mitsuji would most likely try to fight on top of her. Just like Toshiro had believed before speaking to Captain Kurotsuchi, Mitsuji was assuming that Mio was as good as dead and that I was the only descendant of the former Head Captain. But, he also knew that I cared for her and Toshiro would avoid doing something that would upset me. It was the only way he could keep Toshiro from using the full force of his bankai.

I forced myself to sit down on the ground and to let my attention slip away from my body. The reishi that I had dispersed from my box was still hovering in the air in golden flecks, the barrier having kept it all contained around me. I collected all of it, reforming the plates I had taken from my thighs and pushed the rest of it into the ground and under the barrier. I brought everything I had collected together and sent it to Mio. I subtly began forming a box around her, trying not to attract Mitsuji's attention as he clashed with Toshiro.

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast!" Mitsuji started to called out despite his focus being on defending himself. "Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!"

My heart skipped as I realized the incantation. I forced the box around Mio to finish forming, but the walls were thin with the speed.

"Hado # 63. Raikoho!"

I felt the manifestation of the hado even though I couldn't see it with my attention so focused. He had noticed what I was doing. I could feel the energy searing across the ground towards Mio, and I pushed harder to reinforce the walls before it hit. I felt my zanpakuto take hold of my mind and pull me back just before the energy hit. My attention slammed back into my body and I rocked back like it had been a physical hit. I quickly righted myself and gazed across the grass to the smoke that was rising from where Mio has been.

'Why did you pull me back?' I asked my zanpakuto.

'She is unharmed. Look,' she urged me. The smoke dissipated to reveal the box that I had created. The walls were damaged, the spider's web of cracks spreading out from where the hado had hit it. 'If I had left you there you would have been disoriented and unable to repair it. Go to her.'

I did as she said and slipped back into my mind's eye. My box was ruined. I was surprised that it was even still formed from how cracked it was. But, it had worked. Mio felt exactly as she had before. Quickly I repaired the box and set to finishing the walls, my urgency fueled by the feeling of Mitsuji's spiritual pressure rising. Satisfied with the box I had put her in, I sank it into the ground to keep her from being targeted again. Burying her was difficult with all of the reishi I had formed into the box, but once she was hidden under the ground I let myself come back to my body.

I reached out to the barrier, pushing against it to feel the boundaries. The walls stopped on a foot or two into the ground, enough to keep it from looking unfinished and from being easily undermined. Keeping my hand on the barrier I reached out to Mio and pulled the box through the earth… or I tried to. Without any reishi to control the ground it was incredibly difficult. I grabbed my breast plate and pulled it away from my body. I pulled more and more of my armor off until my space inside the barrier was filled with golden bits of reishi leaving me with only my shoulder pauldron and arm guard so I could still use my arm. I pushed the reishi into the ground and like pulling her through water, I moved Mio towards me. I pulled her body under the barrier's walls and up to the surface beside me.

I shifted and knelt over her box. Mio hadn't moved since I had first touched her with my power, and now that she was here I could see why. When I had her to myself she had looked perfectly fine except for her clearly possessed eyes. Since then someone had clearly taken out their frustrations on her. The side of her face was red and swollen like she had been recent hit more than once. The hem of her kimono was ripped in several places, but the blood that had soaked through at her shoulder and the cuts that had gone through her kimono to break skin on her thighs and arms were what really had me worried. They had hurt her, and understanding what Hideo was like, he had probably made her do it to herself.

I placed my hand on the box and pushed through it so I could touch her. I brought my hand to her neck, gently pressing my palm to her skin. I could feel her pulse beating against my fingers, but it seemed weak. I frowned and looked down to her stomach. I needed to know… I pulled the reishi of my armor out of the ground and into the barrier, using it to amplify my mind's eye. I closed my eye and listened, filtering out the sounds of combat coming from outside the barrier. I found her heartbeat, the sound of it slow and soft in my head. I pressed my forehead to the box as I tried to find it. When did a baby start to have a heart beat? She was three months pregnant. Surely it should have had a heartbeat.

Wait…

A barely sensed sound of a fluttering beat caressed my mind. It had to belong to the baby. It was beating so fast. I let out a sigh of relief and sagged against the box. They were fine… Physically… That was all that mattered right now.

I pulled myself away from Mio and let my back lean against the barrier, my gaze casting out of the barrier. Toshiro and Mitsuji were the only ones fighting close enough for me to watch, so I kept my gaze focused on them. Toshiro clearly had the upper hand, his bankai giving him more power and speed that forced Mitsuji to be on the defensive. He didn't seem worried though as Toshiro pushed him back. In fact, he looked like he expected what was happening. That was when instead of blocking Toshiro's next strike he dodged to the side and pointed at him as he called out, "Hado #4. Byakurai!"

Toshiro dodged back, turning to keep the blast from tearing through his wings. The lightning shot up into the sky and crackled as it vanished. The distance between them allowed Mitsuji to take a basic stance with his sword held in both hands, the blade drawn behind his head.

"Multiply, Hidora!" Mitsuji called out as he swung down in a powerful downward slash. Black liquid spilled from the blade, gushing out in stream that shot at Toshiro. He hesitated for only a second before he dodged the liquid by flying up into the air. The liquid continued, shooting straight at me. A wall of ice slammed down between me and the black liquid just before it would have slammed into the barrier. The liquid reared back like it was a living thing and reversed direction before it collided with the ice. It circled back to Mitsuji before it stopped, the form it of becoming something relatively reptilian as it curled around behind him. He rested his hand on its head, his fingers sinking into its liquidlike flesh.

Toshiro drifted down from the sky, his feet touching down just on the other side of his wall of ice. It was clear enough that I could see through it with only a slight warping of the image. It didn't bother me with the heightened senses that my shikai gave me, allowing me focus on them like they were only a few feet away.

"I was wondering when you were going to release your zanpakuto," Toshiro said casually.

"Fighting you wasn't part of my plans," Mitsuji replied as the lizard twirled around his body, leaving the long tail swirled around his legs. "But we all must be flexible."

"You have been a coward until now. Using others to attack from the shadows," Toshiro said as he shifted and his wings beat behind him. His feet lifted off the ground as the sun vanished behind clouds that formed in the sky, consuming any hint of summer in dark grey. "I won't let you slip away."

I stood as I felt Toshiro's power grow, the part of him inside me calling me to move towards him. I rested my hand on the kyomon barrier as I watched him launch forward with so much speed it was like he had flash stepped. He swung his zanpakuto as he called out, "Hyoryu Senbi!" a crescent of ice shot from the blade, smashing into the ground just as Mitsuji disappeared. The black liquid lizard was smashed by the ice, but it seemed to liquefy and slide around it. Part of it froze to the surface of the crescent but it detached itself before it could fully freeze and launched at Toshiro. He pulled his wing into to block it, the liquid splattering against his ice. He moved to shake off the liquid, but as he moved the black substance slid down his wing towards his body faster than it was freezing. Without hesitating he turned his sword on himself, slicing his wing off with one powerful motion.

I held in a gasp as I watched his wing fall to the ground, the tips of it piercing into the dirt. The black liquid trembled and detached itself from the ice before it completely froze and slithered away to Mitsuji's side before becoming reptilian again. Mitsuji let out an annoyed sigh as he slashed his blade again, releasing another torrent of black liquid that settled in front of him before forming into another lizard like creature. "How annoying," he grumbled.

Toshiro remained up in the sky despite his missing wing. I focused on him as worry tightened my chest. But… His wing was reforming. It wasn't slow either, the wing filling out like a bone structure then growing with the same icy scales that had originally been there. I caught myself gaping and closed my mouth when his wing looked like it had before he chopped it off, shades of blue, shimmering and powerful.

"Guncho Tsurara," he called as he swung his zanpakuto, firing and arc of icy daggers down on Mitsuji. The daggers pierced through the liquid lizards leaving them mostly unaffected, but Mitsuji did his best to deflect them with his zanpakuto. He got most of them, but his clothes suffered as several ice daggers clipped through the fabric.

"Hidora Kyosei!" Mitsuji called out once the torrent of ice ceased. He slammed his sword into the ground for only a second before he removed it, but I felt the pulse of power shoot through the ground like a ripple through water. Mio's body jerked inside my box, startling me with the suddenness of the motion. Her hands pressed to the walls of the box and she pushed against it. Her eyes flew open, the greyness of her pupils standing out against the redness of her damaged skin.

I went to her, kneeling on the box as I gazed down at her. She snarled wordlessly at me as she struggled against the walls in an attempt to break free. I placed both of my hands on the box and turned to my entire body was facing her. Kido wasn't supposed to work on Hideo. I never worked on any of the others before, but my sister was weak and because of that… maybe I could completely overpower her.

"Hakufuku," I said softly as I pushed power into the bakudo I had called. To me, nothing happened, but I knew to her she was seeing some sort of scattered image because her eyes were tracking something between us. Her face slowly lost its expressions and her body stopped struggling. Her eyes faded from grey to brown for only a moment, and her face showed recognition just before her eyes slid closed and she passed out. My brows knotted in confusion as I ran my hand down the box over her face. Had that been her that I saw? Or just a side effect of the bakudo…? Hakufuku was just a specialized kido to force someone into unconsciousness. It shouldn't have done anything to separate them.

I shook my head and pushed my thoughts to the side. I could figure it out later. I slid off the box and went back to the barrier to see exactly what Mitsuji had done. The Numeros that Mitsuji had under his control had come to his side, but he looked like he was about to fall over.

"What the fuck?" Mitsuji swore as he turned to the Numeros. "Where are the rest of you?"

"The rest of them have been defeated," he answered as he held his hand to a wound that slashed across his chest.

"And the hollows?" Mitsuji barked out.

"Defeated."

A presence flared beside my barrier and I turned my head to blink at Ayasegawa. He stood as if he had been there for a while, tapping the blade of his zanpakuto on his shoulder as if bored. His purple eyes flicked over to me and he waved his sword at me in some strange gesture that must have been common in Squad 11. I nodded at him in acknowledgment and turned my gaze back to Mitsuji.

"Useless!" Mitsuji shouted as he lashed out at the Numerous, his zanpakuto slicing through him.

The numerous stumbled back with wide eyes, but there didn't appear to be a wound from the hit on his body. Slowly black goo seemed to ooze from where the injury should have been. It slid down his body, turning the white fabric of his outfit black where it touched. It puddled at the ground and moved like the other bodies of liquid had, sliding over the grass and becoming another reptile. I focused on the Numeros, watching at his eyes lightened from grey to a fiery orange. He fell back onto the ground, his body hitting with a heavy thud. His chest was rising and falling with his breath, but otherwise he wasn't moving.

Mitsuji knelt down to the reptile that had just from and pressed his hand to its head. The liquid of its body seemed to swirl and compress until it was the size of a marble and blue. He lifted it up as if to inspect it, then pressed it to his necklace where it stuck to one of the links and hung like the rest of the soul candies. He attention turned to me, his eyes smug as he watched me.

"It's so hard to find good help these days," he said with a shrug.

"Did he…" I couldn't finish my words. I still couldn't believe what I had just seen. He'd just pulled the taint from the Numeros… or that's how it had looked. My heart was pounding in my chest as I pressed my hand into the wall of barrier, the temptation to break it eating away at my resolve to stay inside. Toshiro had to have come to the same conclusion that I had.

"Stay there, Ria," Rukia said, startling me into drawing my hand back. I turned to look at where she stood to my right, just outside the barrier. Her arm looked like it had been burned, the skin red and splotchy, but otherwise she looked untouched. Her violet gaze was fixed on me, watching my reaction to her appearance. I started to open my mouth to protest, but she beat me to words as she said, "I saw, but you need to stay in the barrier. You are his only objective."

I opened my mouth again to argue, but stopped myself. She was right...

"Ryusenka!" Toshiro's shout drew my attention back to him. He had charged Mitsuji, his words calling upon a large explosion of ice that captured Mitsuji and his creatures inside. Toshiro drew back and flicked his zanpakuto to the side, shattering the ice with the movement. The reptiles shattered with the ice, but Mitsuji only stumbled back. He shook like a dog and ice fell from his hair and clothes. He looked rough from the attack, but otherwise unaffected. Toshiro didn't stop at the one attack though, he darted into, releasing blast after blast of ice and heavy hitting blows that had Mitsuji struggling to defend himself.

Mitsuji raised his sword like he was going to slash down and create another liquid creature but was stopped as Captain Sui Feng appeared, delivering a vicious kick to his lower back. He flew forward with the force of it, rolling across the grass until he skidded to a stop only a few yards away. A soft glow emanated from five designs that lit in the grass. Ice formed from each of the designs and shot towards him, connecting under his feet. A pillar of ice shot up from the ground, completely engulfing him as it formed, trapping him inside the huge column.

A sense of panic struck me and I brought my sword arm up, breaking the barrier with my arm guard. They couldn't kill him. I could still feel his spiritual pressure, so he wasn't dead yet. It was weaker with the damage he had taken, but it still felt dark and menacing. I pulled my armor around me as I flash stepped across the grass to the Numeros. I heard Rukia shouting at me but I ignored her as I knelt beside him and pulled my breast plate from my body. I was certain that he was unconscious as I gently pressed my hand to his cheek and filtered out everything except reiatsu. I needed to know if Mitsuji's spiritual pressure was completely gone from him, or if there was still part of him in there.

Something wrapped around my wrist and a burning pain forced me back to my body. I had been positive that he was unconscious before I touched him, but as my vision came back I found myself staring down into fiery orange eyes. His hand had grasped my wrist, the heat of his touch burning my skin.

"What are you doing, Soul Reaper?" he asked, his voice deep and threatening.

"Helping you," I said quickly. "Is he still in your head?"

"What?" He said as his eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Is Mitsuji still in your head?" I said more forcefully.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied.

"Then quit burning me so I can see," I urged him. He watched my face for a long moment, but his hand cooled around my wrist. It hurt from the damage he had done, but I ignored it and closed my eyes before slipping back into my mind's eye. I instantly slipped back into seeing only reiatsu and focused on him. He was colored like the sun, his spiritual pressure shades of yellow and orange. Just looking into it made my body feel hot like I was standing next to a fire. There was no darkness to his spiritual pressure, no black to taint all of that vibrant color.

"What are you doing?" Rukia asked, her voice sounding irritated.

I pulled back from my mind's eye and turned my gaze up to her. "They can't kill him yet. They can't kill Mitsuji."

"Why?" She asked, clearly confused.

"He removed himself from this Numeros. If he can remove himself from one person, he must be able to do it to others. He needs to die. I want him dead, but if he can free everyone he has tainted then we can't."

Her eyes lit with understanding and she vanished in a flash step. I turned my gaze back down to the Numeros and met his gaze. "Thank you," I said as I moved to pull my hand back. He let me pull my hand away, releasing my wrist from his grip.

"Who are you?" he asked in a near whisper.

"Ria Yamamoto, 3rd seat of Squad 10," I answered him as I stood and turned to look at Toshiro's pillar of ice and Mitsuji who was still inside. Rukia was talking to Captain Sui Feng, most likely explaining what I had just said. I scanned the area for Toshiro, but just as I realized that he wasn't by the other two captains I felt the air move as he landed between me and the Numeros. I turned to almost run into his wing that was spread to block my body from the Numeros. He was pointing Hyorinmaru at him, his stance ready to strike.

"Toshiro," I said his name as I rested my palm against his wing. "He's fine. He's not being controlled my Mitsuji anymore."

"And he hurt you anyway?" he asked, his words biting with anger.

"I was invading his personal space to look into his reiatsu. I thought he was unconscious," I quickly said. "It's my own fault." I hadn't looked at my wrist, but the pain told me that I really didn't want to. I had burnt myself in the kitchen before, and that had hurt more than enough for me to know that if I looked at it, it would just hurt more.

Toshiro glanced at me over his shoulder and I met his steely gaze.

"He's fine," I repeated, holding his gaze. "I'm okay."

He continued to hold my gaze for a long moment, watching my face. His wing relaxed under my palm before he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. He let his sword point at the ground before he turned, giving the Numeros his side instead of facing him directly.

"Luien Baras," he said, addressing the Numeros.

"Soul Reaper," he replied as he slowly sat up, the movement looking painful.

"Get out of here before I kill you."

The Numeros didn't seem to hesitate to give Toshiro a chance to rethink his words. He got to his feet and started moving away from us.

"Captain!" A familiar male voice called out as a Soul Reaper with green hair emerged from a flash step.

"Amagi?" I said in surprise as I turned to him.

He had dropped from his flash step running, moving towards the Numeros. He drew his arm back and hurled something that looked like a chain towards him. It caught the unprepared Numeros around his middle, pinning one arm against his side. The Numeros let out a pained scream as lighting zapped along his body making his muscles seize. He fell to the ground, his body unmoving other than the occasional twitch from whatever Amagi had hit him with.

Clearly satisfied with his work, Amagi turned to us with a skip in his step. "Captain Kurotsuchi sent me," he said as he closed the distance between us. "We can't let them go. He wants all of them to study, even the Arrancars."

"What about Mitsuji?" I asked.

Amagi's daffodil gaze turned to me, a serious expression set on his face. "He said it would be ideal if he was dead. There could be a link between him and his soul candies, something that would prevent him from, ugh, dissecting his samples." Amagi seemed to shudder with his final words.

I turned my gaze away from Amagi to look up at Toshiro. He had turned away from the Numeros, his gaze focused on Mitsuji. "Ria, what is your name?"

I blinked up at him for a moment before I understood what he was saying. "I-I don't know. It was She Who Kills, but…"

'It still is,' my zanpakuto's voice whispered in my head. 'But today is your turning point. You decide.'

I bit my lip as I cast my gaze to the ground. 'If we don't kill him, he can free everyone from his control including Mio.'

'If you don't kill him, he may escape again and try to kill you both,' she countered. 'I don't foresee you being able to ever convince him to free your sister of his control.'

Her words had me hesitating, trying to think over the situation. 'He needs to die… but If I kill him, Mio is as the mercy of Captain Kurotsuchi's genius.'

'Do you trust him?'

I knew who she was referring to. I lifted my eyes to gaze up to Toshiro's as I thought, 'yes.'

'Do you question his faith?'

'No.'

'But…' she let her words trail off, and I nodded in understanding.

"Toshiro, did you mean what you said earlier? About Captain Kurotsuchi?" I asked him, my voice sounding small and unsure.

He watched me for a long moment before he answered, "Yes, I meant it."

"Will you think less of me if I…"

"I will kill him for you, if that is what you want."

I nodded slowly and lifted my sword arm and blade with my mind's eye, turning it so the metal would show my reflection. My zanpakuto looked back at me, her skin still black like onyx and eyes as teal as ever. Toshiro had intentionally left him alive for me...

'Help me,' I softly pleaded. 'He needs to die.'

A feeling of agreeance filled me and I felt her push her will into my body. Through me she moved, drawing my hand down the blade like I used to do to activate my shikai before I knew her name. The sword seemed to glow as my blood soaked into the metal and I watched as it shifted. The hilt elongated in my hand, shifting my zanpakuto into more of a spear as the blade shrank into the point. Light engulfed it just as it stopped shifting and exploded in golden sparks, revealing an elegant and aerodynamic shaft tipped by a golden spearhead.

"Yokokuhen," she whispered as she flipped the spear to turn the blade down.

I felt pain pulse through my mind, but both of us ignored it. She lifted my arm, turning my body and pointing the spear towards the pillar of ice where Mitsuji was trapped. She took several steps forward, the muscles in my legs flexing with strength that I didn't know I had before she launched the spear forward. As soon as it left my hand I felt her go with it, flying through the air in a graceful but powerful arc. She pierced the ice pillar, her speed never diminishing as she slid through it and connected with Mitsuji. I felt her blade as she went through his body, the shaft lodging through his chest.

He was screaming despite being unable to move or be heard by anyone other than my zanpakuto and I. His power pushed at Tankyu no Unmei, but she was far stronger than I was. She brushed his power off like a breeze across her body and I felt hers rise. She ate away at the reishi that composed his body, treating him much like he had treated my reiatsu when he had tried to take me over. From a distance, it looked like light was consuming him, but in reality, she was forcing his body to become pure reishi, one agonizing second at a time. He screamed and struggled until his chest and heart were completely gone and I felt his spiritual pressure vanish like he had never been there. She didn't stop though, she continued to turn his body into reishi until there was nothing left but glowing flecks of reishi inside the ice.

I felt the power of my shikai leave me once his body was gone and my armor dissipated with the power. I had been frozen in the position she had left me from throwing the spear, but when her power drained away I collapsed onto the ground only barely catching my upper body with my left hand before I could hit the grass. My head was pounding, screaming at me in pain. I knew that we had damaged our bond again by working so closely. I couldn't feel her presence inside me at all, but with my zanpakuto still in the ice dozens of yards away it was no wonder.

"Your bond?" Toshiro asked softly as he moved around and knelt in front of me. My eyes were slow to focus on him as I lifted my head, the pain making me cringe. His hand cupped the side of my face, the roughness of the icy scales that covered his skin a strange sensation. I subtly nodded as I pressed my cheek more firmly into his touch. The coolness of his scales made the pain dull slightly, so I closed my eyes to relish the feeling.

"I can't do anything to help you with the pain right now," he murmured. "I would just end up hurting you."

"Did I… Did I do the right thing?" I asked in a whisper. "Now that I've done it, I've killed him, I feel like I shouldn't have."

"He would have never helped to free Mio from his control. The others I could see him being convinced on, but he was fixated on killing every one of the former Head Captain's descendants. It was his purpose in life."

I slowly opened my eyes to gaze up at him. "Do you really think so?"

"Yes," he answered firmly. He moved as if to sheath his zanpakuto, the blade sliding into the ice at his back. His wings vanished, dissipating into the air like steam ghosting off of a lake's surface. The ice that had replaced his sash seemed to flow back into fabric as his actual sheath reappeared. The ice that had appeared like a crown vanished, taking with it the scales that had covered his skin and the fins that had been over his ears. With his bankai, his reiatsu inside of me faded to a cooling presence and I felt the small amount of strength I still had go with it. My arm gave out, but before I could start to fall his arms were around me and pulling my body to him. He turned me in his embrace before his arms slid under my legs and back to lift me. I couldn't seem to hold my head up on my own, and as I felt it fall back my world turned black…


	18. She Who Heals - The Conclusion

It was three weeks later when I finally emerged from unconsciousness for the first time. I had woken to the bright lights of Squad 4's infirmary with needles and monitors strapped to my body. At the time, I had been so disoriented that I had tried to get up and had fallen out of the medical bed, lighting up the entire ward when the screens and beeping machines flat lined. They had put me back to sleep shortly afterwards to keep my irrational actions from hurting anyone, or myself. I didn't remember that part, but according to Captain Kotetsu, I had been vehemently trying to find my zanpakuto that was locked up in the Squad 10 arms room. Now that I was of sound mind, I knew I had been trying to reach her because she was struggling to repair our bond with such distance between us.

With the panic that I had been in when I first woke, it had taken them an entire day to deem me sane enough to be released from their care, and another day to ensure that I had full use of my arm. I hadn't been allowed to see anyone outside of the squad's staff after I woke, so I was more than happy to be free. My only complaint was that I had been released after office hours, and as I stood at the locked door to the arms room I could practically feel my zanpakuto on the other side. I couldn't really feel her, but with Captain Kotetsu's direction, I knew she had to be inside. Perhaps our bond was still so damaged that I couldn't feel her presence, or maybe the walls were too thick to feel hear her through. Either way, it was lonely having not spoken to her in days.

As I left the arms room to step outside, I was greeted by the hot and humid air that came just before a summer storm. The sky was clear above me, but the clouds that were slowly rolling in ranged from white and fluffy patches to a dark and foreboding mass that dominated the sky. For some reason, looking up into the clouds made my chest tighten in the most pathetic way. I hadn't seen anyone outside of the Squad 4 Captain, and a few of their members, since I had woken up. No Toshiro, no Rangiku, no Rukia. No Tankyu no Unmei. Once upon a time, that never would have bothered me, but I desired so badly to be around people right now that I wanted to cry.

I hadn't been told anything while I was in the infirmary. I didn't know what had happened since I had blacked out. Everyone that I asked, answered that they didn't know or had no clue who I was referring to. It was true, my sister was an unknown in the world of Soul Reapers. But, after so much had happened to me it seemed like everyone should know. Maybe news didn't travel around the Soul Society as fast as I thought.

I turned away from the offices and started walking. I felt so exposed out in the open. Without my zanpakuto or someone beside me, it was like I was doing something wrong. The feelings had me biting my lip and crossing my arms over my waist in a small attempt to make my presence seem smaller. I needed to find something to do with myself or I was going to crumble to pieces. I just needed someone… I transitioned into a flash step as my mind turned to Mio. Captain Kurotsuchi had wanted everyone who had been taken over my Mitsuji's zanpakuto for study. Surely, I could convince Lieutenant Akon to let me see her.

Arriving at the doors to the Department of Research and Development, I stopped at the door and stared at the Squad 12 insignia drawn across the door. I could feel my eyes growing hot as I thought about what I might see inside, but I quickly shook my head and blinked madly to clear my vision. No, I wasn't going to start crying at the stupid door. I wasn't that pathetic.

I reached up to knock on the door, my knuckles rapping against the metal just before they slid open. I startled and stepped back, quickly drawing my hand to my side. A large, green skinned man was standing in the open-door way. His oddly shaped eyes and oversized mouth had me fighting with my feet to take another step back, but I stopped myself and instead bowed politely to him

"I'm here to see Mio Ise," I said, sounding far more confident than I was feeling. What if she wasn't even here? I hadn't thought that far through my actions.

Silence hung in the air for a long, suspenseful moment. I knew he had to be staring down at me, but what he was thinking was beyond me. He made a deep, rumbling sound as he shifted his weight onto one foot, then back to the other.

"She isn't taking visitors," he answered.

I righted myself and trained my eyes on the fabric of his lab coat. "I just want to know how she's doing," I said hesitantly. "If I can't see her, that's fine. But please, tell me how she is?"

"We cannot share that sort of information at this time. Please come back later," he responded and started to turn away.

"It's alright Hiyosu," another voice said from further inside the building, pausing the green man's movement. "That's Mio Ise's sister, right Miss Yamamoto?"

I let out a silent sigh of relief when I saw Lieutenant Akon step up from behind Hiyosu. He had changed since the last time I had met him with his hair grown down to his shoulders and an additional horn protruding from his forehead. His dark eyes met my gaze and held it for a long moment.

"I figured you would be heading this way when Lieutenant Kiyone mentioned you had woken up. I can't let you see her, but I can tell you what you want to know," he said as he waved Hiyosu off and took his place at the door.

"How is she?" I asked, rattling off the first question that came to mind.

He blinked down at me slowly before he shifted his stance and said, "Physically she's in good health, but she's still under the control of Hideo Mitsuji's soul candy."

"Have you figured out a way to separate them?"

"No, we are still working on that," he said with a shake of his head.

"How is…" I swallowed hard as I found myself getting choked up with contained tears. I had been trying to not get my hopes up for her to be free of him. Now as my nose burned with the urge to cry and my throat tightened, I realized that I had failed miserably.

"The baby is fine," he said softly.

I nodded and turned my gaze away so I could try to get control of my expressions. I took a deep breath forced my throat to clear before I asked, "What about everyone else?"

"Also fine, but still under his control. With the death of Hideo Mitsuji, some of them are able to emerge for short times from his control, but otherwise they are all still his victims."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Akon," I said as I turned back to him and bowed, using the motion as an excuse to hide my face. "Do you know when I might be able to come see her?"

"No," he answered softly. "If you would like, I can send word when her condition changes."

"Please," I responded as I stood and gave him my most sincere smile. "I would greatly appreciate that."

I turned away from him and took off in a flash step before he could see me cry. She wasn't dead, and right now that was all that mattered. I should have known better than to hope for more, but being cooped up and left in the dark for two days had let my mind wander. Crying about it was useless and I knew it, yet the tears seemed to keep sliding down my cheeks. They would figure something out… They had too.

My flash step took me to the backside of Rangiku's house. I had considered going to the Ise Manor to see Daichi, but with tears still pouring from my eyes, that had seemed like a bad idea. If he was even conscious enough to talk to, I would just make him miserable. If I hadn't been on clan grounds that day, maybe this wouldn't have happened.

Pushing the door to her spare room open, I gazed in to find that it was mostly how I had left it. I stepped inside and started to turn to close the door when something on the pillow of the futon caught my eye. I walked closer, and upon recognizing the mangled metal I knelt down to pick up my kanzashi. The poor little hummingbird was smashed, the wings and beak just mangled pieces of twisted metal. Dried blood encrusted the cracks giving a rusted look to the silver and bronze. I turned it in my hand, examining it as the memory of my head being smashed back into the wall made my lips tighten in a cringe. I could fix it once I had Tankyu no Unmei back, but this was the one thing that my sister had given me that meant something. It hurt my heart to know what was happening to her, and to know that I had ruined something so precious to the both of us. Again.

I stood and moved over to the dresser. I pulled a handkerchief of silk from one of the drawers and wrapped my kanzashi in the fabric, folding it neatly to completely cover the metal. I didn't deserve to wear this anymore. I couldn't take care of it like it deserved to be. I would fix it, and if she had her child… When. When she had her child, I would give it to them at their coming of age ceremony or their wife at their wedding. They would be much more deserving than I ever was.

I tucked the fabric and kanzashi away in another drawer and turned to leave the room. I had stopped crying sometime while I had been looking at my kanzashi. Instead of feeling sad I felt empty and so cold. Toshiro's spiritual pressure had completely left me while I was unconscious, so I knew it wasn't his reiatsu making me shiver despite the hot summer air.

As I stepped out onto the porch the soft patter of the rain came to my ears. I stepped to the edge so I could lean out and gazed up at the sky. Light grey clouds covered the air above me, but to the sides blue sky still shone through to illuminate the rain as it fell. I reached a hand out into the summer shower to find the rain warm as if it were falling from a hot spring. The feeling of the warm water brought a sad smile to my lips. Even the sky was crying.

What was wrong with me? I needed to stop being so depressed. This wasn't like me. I took things in stride and dealt with my issues. My sister wouldn't want to see me acting miserable because of something that was out of my control. She raised me to be emotionally stronger than that. It was one thing to be scared or vengeful, but it was an entirely different matter to be depressed. I closed my eyes and visualized stuffing my worries, concerns, sadness and self-doubt into a filing cabinet and slamming it closed. Actually getting the drawer to close took several tries as my mind tried to recall all the things I was trying to stop thinking about, but after several attempts the thoughts stayed where I had put them. Later, when the events weren't so fresh in my mind, I would pull open that drawer and deal with the turmoil inside.

Opening my eyes, I gazed out across the grassy field. Without the haze of sadness to muddy my sight, everything seemed so much more vivid. So much more alive. Now that my mind was clear, I struggled to come up with something to think about outside of recent events. I turned my gaze back to the still open door to Rangiku's spare room and spotted my koto sitting against the back wall. She must have put it up after I had passed out from the first time my zanpakuto had damaged our bond. Playing my koto required no thought, while keeping my mind busy on my fingers and my eyes focused on my strings. Perfect.

A short time later, I had my koto set up on the porch and the bridges in place. I had to pull out a fresh set of picks since my first set had been partially lost, but it bothered me little as I shifted the koto closer to my lap. I tested my new picks out as my fingers danced across the strings in a slow melody. I had to pause to adjust them several times, but when I finally felt confident in their placement, I immersed myself in the complicated melodies that I had struggled to memorize for years.

I played everything from my best rehearsed songs, to songs I hadn't played in years. I played bad notes, wrong notes, sharp and flat notes, all as I forced myself to recall older and older songs. I ran through them until I had ironed out the wrong notes or replaced them with a better sounding combination of trills and mordents. I played and played until the sky grew dark with the storm over head and the dim light of dusk made seeing my strings impossible. Even when I couldn't play any more I remained sitting at my koto, my palms resting across the strings as I absently drew my thumb's pick across the strings it could reach.

A touch brushed across my shoulder, but I ignored the foreign sensation as I convinced myself that I had imagined it. I had been sitting here alone for what must have been hours. I would have noticed if someone had come up. I had almost convinced myself of this when delicate hands slid over my shoulders and a very female chest pressed to my back. My zanpakuto's arms folded over my chest as she hugged me from behind. I could feel the press of her mask against my hair as she rested her weight on my frame, the sleeves of her kimono sliding over my arms to cover me in silk.

"Will you play another song?" she asked softly.

"I cannot see my strings," I replied in a near whisper. "I went to get you, but the arms room was locked."

"Your Captain retrieved me when you woke. Being so far from you, and with our bond still in tatters, I could not manifest as I normally would until now, when you and I are near."

"How are you here now if you could not manifest?" I asked. I lifted my hands from my koto and stripped the picks from my fingers to lay them across the decorative edge.

"You have closed yourself off from the world," she murmured.

I turned my body and head just enough so that I could see her face. Even in the dimness of the waning light her mask shown in layers of gold that wove over her skin and into her hair. The pattern of the metal created an elegant weave that continued into her shimada, leaving her mouth and jaw exposed. Her lips were painted red, accenting the paleness of her skin against the richness of the maroon kimono she had donned. With her body pressed so closely to my back I knew that she wasn't wearing her armor today. Her teal gaze was soft as she met my own. She blinked her long, black lashes slowly and her gaze shifted to look beyond my face.

"Open your senses, Herald."

I dropped my gaze to my koto for a moment as I considered her words. I hadn't remembered closing myself off, but just thinking about him made me realize that Toshiro was sitting on the porch several yards away. How long he had been there I didn't know, but if my zanpakuto had waited until I stopped playing to approach me, I could guess he had been there for a while.

"What is my name today?" I asked her as I resisted the urge to turn to him.

"The same as it has been for three weeks. She Who Heals. I would have left you to sleep until I had repaired it, but the distance was wearing on my nerves. I woke you to remedy the issue." She let her head tilt to the side until her chin was propped up by her shoulder. "Yokokuhen is an ability from our bankai, just like the power I used when I found Hideo Mitsuji to first damage our bond. Yokokuhen, The Herald's Spear, almost severed our bond. Even now I am still working to repair what I have broken."

"We," I quickly corrected her. "We have broken."

She let a short laugh slip out before she caught herself. "Yes, the damage that we have done. But, there will be no more breaking the rules. Our encounter with the arrancars has enlightened me on where your future was changing, or more accurately on where I am blind. Arrancars are the one being that I cannot see when I look into the future, or the ones that we have encountered. Their powers are so different from our own that I didn't see their presence in your fate. I simply thought that they were not there, but I was mistaken."

"That would explain a lot," I said as let my gaze drift back to the falling rain. "My fate first changed when Hollows invaded the Rukon District, and with that many Hollows in one place there must have been an Arrancar controlling them. The next time was when Toshiro and Rangiku were drawn to the Human world to back up Amagi and Ono. The third time was when you went searching for Mitsuji though. How did you not see him?"

"I saw him just as you did in your mind's eye. I could not see the pawns he had made of the Arrancars. He was changing your fate because I could not see them to judge your names correctly."

"So, you cannot see everything that fate has to offer?"

"No, I cannot." She let out a heavy sigh before continuing in my head. 'The Numeros that your comrade captured for study is still under the control of Squad 12. To better understand their power and to improve my sight, I would suggest spending time near him once our bond is mended.'

My gaze drifted towards where I knew Toshiro was, but I caught myself mid motion. I wasn't comfortable with her suggestion. She knew that I wouldn't be, and that neither would Toshiro, so she had switched to speaking in my mind. She must have sensed my unease because she tightened her arms around me, pulling my body closer to hers.

'Not now,' she soothed. 'When you are ready. You are my Herald, and I will protect you as best as I am allowed, but I need to see clearly in order to do so.'

I didn't answer her as I leaned forward, freeing myself from her arms. I felt her presence vanish from behind me as I pushed my koto away from my lap. I stood, rolling my ankles and knees to get rid of the stiffness that lingered in my joints from sitting for so long. I let my gaze drift in Toshiro's direction, slowly trailing over the porch until I found him. His was sitting on the other side of the porch, his body facing me with his back leaning against one of the porch pillars and his knee drawn up so his arm could rest on it. He was wearing his shihakusho and Captain's haori like usual, the chain for Hyorinmaru slanted across his chest with the sash that held Tankyu no Unmei resting just below it. I met his aquamarine gaze, his eyes showing with color even in the darkness as he watched me.

I stopped when my feet were a few inches in front of his and started to kneel. He shifted for me, allowing me to rest my knees between his foot and where his other leg hung over the edge of the porch. I hesitated once I was sitting, unsure of what to say. I wanted to throw myself into his arms, but I didn't know if it was appropriate. I had been unconscious for three weeks, and in the two days that I had been awake I hadn't seen him. Where had he been? Had he not been allowed to see me? Or had he been detained? He had my zanpakuto, so maybe he was just here to deliver her to me. Maybe his feelings had changed. The questions kept buzzing through my head as I held his gaze and struggled to come up with words.

"Hi," I said when I finally had given up on bigger words. That was a good way to start a conversation, right?

"Hi," he repeated.

"How long have you been here?" I asked, not wanting to get an answer to the questions that I really had been thinking.

"Long enough," he replied tactically. "I had thought the song you played for Captain Abarai's dance had been difficult enough. Hearing you play, I now know that you are far more skilled than you let on."

"Thank you," I mumbled as I dropped my gaze to look at my fingers. "The shamisen and biwa aren't as fun to play. The koto is my favorite, so I tend to spend a lot of time practicing. It gives me time to recoup, and time to think without thinking."

"What was on your mind?" He asked softly. His hand lifted to slide along the back of my hand until his palm was cradling mine. The delicate touch had butterflies tickling my stomach. With all the time I had spent recovering, his touch felt new and exciting.

"I was trying to not think about what happened while I was unconscious," I admitted. "They wouldn't tell me anything at Squad 4, so I've been left to my imagination."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," he apologized. "Captain Kotetsu was worried about how you would react to stress, so I abided by her wishes. You were released earlier than I anticipated, or I would have been there."

The worry that had been tightening my chest eased with his words. He had been waiting for me. "She must have told you how I woke up the first time."

"Yes. I retrieved your zanpakuto shortly after you woke." He sat up, pulling his back away from the pillar as his hands went to the tie in the sash that Tankyu no Unmei was attached to. I quickly reached out, covering his hands and stopping him. I wrapped my fingers around his palms and pulled him further forward until I could rise up on my knees and kiss him. His lips were soft as he returned my kiss, keeping it almost chaste. His hands slipped from my own, finding their way around my body to rest on my cheek and lower back. Just like his kiss, his hands were gentle as he touched me. It made me feel like glass, when all I wanted was for him to pull me against him and hold me as tightly as he could.

He broke the kiss as his thumb caressed my cheek, his head tilting until his forehead pressed to mine. "When you wouldn't wake up, I thought you might never open your eyes again."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I had no idea that my bond with Tankyu no Unmei would be nearly broken. If I had, I might have reconsidered my actions."

"Never again," he said as he pulled back and both of his hands cupped my face. I opened my eyes to meet his steady aquamarine gaze. "Never again am I allowing you to do something so damaging to yourself."

A small smile turned the corner of my lips. "You are such a captain."

"I mean it," he said, his tone growing serious.

"I love you." The words fell from my mouth before I could catch them. My cheeks lit up in a blush as I realized just what I had said, but I didn't try to take them back. It was true, I did love him. Even if he couldn't say it in return, my feelings for him were unmistakable. Before he was in my life I had been wandering aimlessly, floating in the same state of being and lacking the motivation to grow. Since he had saved me, just his presence could fill me with light. Even before he had taken interest in me, I had felt the attraction. I didn't care what my zanpakuto had said about fate drawing us together. It didn't matter to me. What did matter was the way that my heart raced when he touched me, how his scent made me want to wrap myself in his arms like he was a blanket, how his kisses thrilled me down to my toes, how my body fit perfectly in the curve of his, how he always knew what to say, how he was always there when I needed him.

His brows lifted in surprise as his next words were caught in his throat. It took a minute for him to recover, his expression softening and his lips curving in a slight grin.

"Your brain to mouth filter must not be working again," he teased.

I started to protest but his mouth covered mine to silence me. The kiss only lasted a moment before he broke it. His hands left my cheeks, sliding down my neck, shoulders and arms to finally take my hands. He stood with little effort, pulling me up with him. With his grip, I didn't have much of a choice but to follow.

"You found your kanzashi?" he asked me as he dropped one of my hands to run his fingers over my forehead, brushing a strand of hair away.

I tried not to let my expression drop as I responded, "yes, what was left of it."

"Come," he said as he turned, gently pulling me behind him as he started walking around the porch. "I have something for you."

I quirked a brow at his back as I followed him. He led us around the porch to the side of Rangiku's house that faced his before he stepped down into the rain. The rain instantly soaked through my hair and shoulders as I stepped down. The storm that had once been in the distance was now directly overhead, pouring chilled rain instead of the shower of warm rain that had fallen earlier today. The chill had me walking faster until I was walking at Toshiro's side instead of being led.

We stepped up onto the porch and he released my hand as I started to wipe the rain out of my eyes and smooth my hair back. He didn't wait for me, moving towards his back door and sliding it open to step inside. He left the door ajar, so I followed him once I had shaken off as much water from my skin as possible. I closed the door behind me and followed his spiritual pressure until I was standing in his living room. The door to his room was open, but unlike before I moved towards it and leaned against the frame to watch him as he turned and walked back towards me, a small rectangular box in his hand.

"Your zanpakuto believes you won't be able to use your shikai for another week or two," he said as he held out the box for me to take. I eyed it suspiciously for a moment before I hesitantly took it. I drew my fingers across the top before I lifted it off just enough to peek inside. I quickly closed it once I had gotten a glimpse of the contents and blinked in surprise.

"A kanzashi?" I asked, not believing what I had seen inside.

"Yes," he said smoothly. He had pulled my kanzashi from my hair in the hot spring, so he knew just how broken it was. I had never tried to keep my feelings for the hair ornament secret, but it was just an accessory. He had been there, holding my kanzashi when I repaired it weeks ago. He had seen what I had done to myself just so I had enough power to fix it. He knew what it meant to me and for him to give me something like this… it was far more than I deserved.

I removed the top from the box and slid it under so I could hold the delicate metal kanzashi to the light. It was a bira-bira style kanzashi, just like my hummingbird, but this one was made of three golden flowers and far more elegant than anything I had ever worn. The gold that composed the flowers was just as thin as the real petals would have been and etched to give the petals depth. The edges of each petal were scalloped and bent to catch the light, giving a warm glow to each flower. A white gem was held in the center of each flower, focusing the light onto the petals and making it even more eye catching. A butterfly sat on the edge of one of the flowers, the etching on its wings and body making it look at home in the ornate flowers. Instead of metal plates hanging from the flowers, several golden chains dangled with circular beveled plates hanging from every other link.

"I-I can't," my words faded as I lifted it from the box and held it up to the light. The gems in the flowers shone even brighter without the box behind it to soak in the light.

"Yes, you can," he said.

"No, I mean I can't wear this," I finished my words. My eyes focused past the kanzashi and I met Toshiro's gaze. His hand closed over mine and he gently pulled the kanzashi from my grasp. Clearly, he was ignoring me as he pressed closer and his hand slid along my hair until he could tip my head forward to reveal my chignon. I laughed lightly as I felt him slide the pins under the chignon and I felt the chains drag across my shoulder. I tilted my head back to look up at him and felt the chains slide across my shoulder to fall behind.

"I can't wear it with my chignon so low. The chains aren't supposed to touch anything, they're supposed to hang freely," I said as I smiled up at him. He made a noise of understanding, but appreciated his actions none the less by tilting my chin up and watching as the kanzashi turned with me.

"You'll have to wear your hair differently then," he murmured after a moment and leaned down to kiss me. I couldn't keep my smile from growing against his lips.

"I think I can manage that," I said as I stepped back from him and pulled the kanzashi from my hair. I placed it in its box and replaced the lid before I turned and softly set it down on the coffee table. My hands went to my hair and I started undoing the braids that I had wrapped around my chignon to hide the excess strands that hadn't made it into the bun. Quickly running my fingers through them, I tugged on the knotted ribbon that held the rest of my hair and pulled it free from my locks. I shook my head, letting my hair undo itself from the tight hold of the chignon and quickly flipped it over my head and then back to let my scalp relax.

"Thank you," I murmured as I turned back to him while still gathering my hair back up to redo the chignon in a higher position. Before I could say more, his fingers wove into my hair, catching my head in his hands before his mouth covered mine. I was so surprised by his sudden actions that I gasped against his lips and dropped my ribbon. My hands were frozen in my hair, but my eyes closed instinctively as I returned his kiss. He pressed me backwards, his hands guiding my direction until I felt the couch bump the back of my knees and I tumbled onto the cushions. He followed me down, one hand releasing my hair to catch his weight while his other knotted in my locks, holding me still as he dominated my mouth.

Trapped beneath him I did the only thing that I could do, and my hands found the collar of his shihakusho so I could him down until his weight was pushing me into the couch. He took my force of action as an invitation and pressed his knee into the cushion at my hip to take his weight and used his free hand to slide under my frame and pull me up higher onto the couch. I arched my back while lifting my chin to offer him my exposed neck. He took the hint and his mouth left mine, trailing down my jaw to kiss and tease the sensitive flesh. A moan escaped my lips when his teeth scraped over my pulse, sending a thrill of excitement all the way down to my toes.

I tugged on the sash that held Tankyu no Unmei, pulling on the ties to free her. Toshiro sat back, effectivly removing my hands from the knot. He slid the sash over his head and let my zanpakuto slide gently to the ground, the sash piling on top of her hilt as it slid through his fingers. Hyorinmaru was next, landing beside her on the floor. It was when his captain's haori followed that my heart leapt into a sprint. Free of his accessories, his body returned to pressing me into the couch while his mouth found mine and his hand wound in my hair again. He kissed me until I was gasping and my body was burning with the desire to feel more of him.

His hand slid down my arm to take my left hand, his fingers winding into mine. He pulled my hand to his lips and left kisses across my knuckles before he moved to my wrist. He kissed the burn scars left my the Numeros, turning my hand so he could kiss every inch of the marred skin. He lifted his weight off my body, propping himself up with his arm and knee so he could gaze down at me. I couldn't keep myself from blushing as his eyes wandered down my body and back up, his expression changing to something heated and needy.

"Toshiro?"

His free hand left my hair to trail down my neck and to my sternum. He caught the collar of my shihakusho and gently pulled down, exposing the upper part of my chest. He lowered his head, his eyes rolling up to watch mine as he feathered kissed down the pale line where the Hollow had skewered me. He continued his movements and tugged my collar open far enough so he could expose my shoulder. He watched my expression as he shifted, moving my arm so the scar where Mitsuji had broken through my armor was exposed. He ghosted more kisses along my skin, covering every inch of the over sensitized skin before trailing up my shoulder and back to my neck.

My hands went to the tie of my sash that held my shihakusho closed. He felt my movements and his mouth left my neck to capture my lips in a heated kiss that had me making small noises. His hand slipped under my back as the knot in my sash came undone and he coaxed me to roll over. Without any resistance, he pulled my shihakusho top down my arms and free from my hakama in one swift movement and tossed it on the floor, leaving me topless beneath him. I squirmed with the cold air that raised goosebumps on my skin, but quickly forgot the temperature when his mouth found the bend of my neck. I cried out when his teeth bit teasingly into my flesh before nipping a trail down to the mark left by the entrance wound from the Hollow.

His kisses on my back had me so distracted that I almost didn't notice his arm wrapping around my waist. His fingers dug into my hip before his grip around me had my body rolling over again, completely exposing my upper body to his gaze. He didn't seem to care as his eyes locked with mine once more and he crawled down my body to settle himself between my legs. His hand slid under my butt and lifted, bringing my hips up so that I could see the line of my body between the valley of my breasts. Still supporting my hips, he leaned down and hesitated with his mouth only inches from my abdomen. The mark from Amagi's blade had healed without a scar, but he knew exactly where the wound had been. I squirmed with the feel of his hot breath ghosting down my skin, but he kept me from doing any more with just the strength of his arms.

"Toshiro," I breathed out, his name sounding like a plea.

His expression turned smug before he slowly lowered his mouth to my skin and his lips barely pressed to my flesh. I threw my head back at the sensation and a gasp rasped from my mouth when his teeth gently brushed along my skin.

"Ria." His voice was almost a growl as he said my name. He shifted, his body sliding up mine as I brought my head back down to look at him. He caught my mouth before I could say something in reply, kissing me into silence as he pinned my body down with his. He pulled back just enough to look down at me. His hand brushed my hair back, running his fingers through my locks.

"If we keep this up, I am going to make you mine," he murmured.

"I already told you," I said as a sure smile turned my lips. "I am yours."


End file.
